Power Source
by Katfreak
Summary: She broke her heart to make them leave.......and now she needs them more than anything..........will they come back for her? Sari/BB, Prowl/Jazz. A alternate ending of the TFA series mentioned
1. Chapter 1

Power Source: Prologue

**Katfreak: Hello! My first story of TFA! Whoa lol! This fanfic is inspired by my pictures over on Deviant Art for anyone who is interested! I still go by the name Katfreak! I hope you guys enjoy! I don't own TFA!**

* * *

Sari should have known it was not the best idea to speak to Sentinel away from her friends. But the harsh look she was given made her obedient.

He had been giving her the same evil glare since he had arrived through the space bridge with the twins and several other Elite Guards. And he didn't stop.

The darkest and furtherest room of the Autobot warehouse was becoming more dark and threatening as they argued. Sari shuddered, body shivering in protesting misery.

"N-no, please stop-!"

"No way, organic" sneered Sentinel, looming over her threateningly, "Not until you tell me you know what you have to do."

"No-!"

"You think they can stay here?" continued Sentinel in his harsh tone, "I think not! You do know what will happen to them if they stay here, don't you?"

Sari froze, eyes gently squeezing together, "P-please don't..."

"So you do know," growled Sentinel, "That's what will happen if they don't return; they'll be charged with treason and be treated like Decepticons! Do you really want that? Condemn your "family" to death in the stockade? You know none of them would make it there..."

Sari's eyes squeezed shut, eyes filling up and she desperately clamped her hands over her ears, staggering away from Sentinel like she had been struck. "STOP IT!! PLEASE!!"

She didn't want o hear him, or listen to what he said...but...

Sentinel snorted, "What you do is up to you, you techno-organic freak, but your gonna have to deceide soon."

Sari gasped painfully before bolting from the room.

She heard Sentinel snort as she ran, not noticing as she dart past a concerned Prowl and Jazz, who both called out.

She zoomed past everyone, deploying her energy skates, not noticing if they called out or not; she had to get out.

As she left the warehouse, she realised something, something that hurt a lot and made her begin to cry outright.........

He was right.......

* * *

"S-sari! You can't mean that!" cried out Bumblebee, eyes wide in shock.

His look was shared by all of the other Autobots that knew her; their optics wide in shock, confusion and hurt.

Her expression, on the other hand, was one of blank disinterest and pure seriousness.

"You all heard me," She started again, deadpanned, "I want you all to leave and never come back."

"But Sari-!" started Optimus, but she cut him short.

"But nothing, Optimus Prime! Your orders were to stay to find all the Allspark fragments and Decepticons on earth. If you hadn't noticed, all the Allspark fragments were used against the Lugnuts' last week and all Decepticons, e.g. Megatron, are gone! You have no right or need to remain here anymore!"

"But Sari-!"

"No buts!" She snarled, "Just leave already! I don't want you guys to stay anymore!"

"Sa-!!"

"I HATE YOU ALL! JUST GO!!"

A shocked silence reigned across the air, all optics on her. Even the other new bots were shocked into silence.

The hurt stares of her friends caused her half-dead feelings to stir and she fought back the urge to cry.

Instead she turned on her heel and stomped out of the base, ignoring their shouts.

She broke into a run when she heard the familiar voice of her betrayed best friend behind her, and she struggled not to cry. "GO AWAY BUMBLEBEE!!!"

"NO! SARI WHY ARE YOU BEING LIKE THIS?! PLEASE!"

She spun around, hands transforming as she threw a frustrated ball of energy into his face. He cried out as he was struck and fell back, clutching the side of his face.

They stared each other down for a moment. Sari's eyes trailed over the damage her attack had left, but what was worse was the look in his optics.....the look of confused betrayal........

Sari shuddered and shook her head violently as she back away. "Sari....."

"I-I hate you.....go away! GO AWAY!" She screamed, losing her battle to contain her tears, running away from him.

She didn't look back, even when he called out to her again.....

She couldn't face his expression........It hurt so much...to betray them like this......but she knew it was for the best.......

She raced back to Sumdac tower, bursting through the doors and scaring the slag out of the poor reception bot.

She bolted up the stairs and rushed into her room, unknowingly pushing past her startled father.

She launched onto the bed, burying her face into the sheets to try and muffle her cried and tears.

She jumped when she felt a gentle hand on her shoulder and turned to see the face of professor Sumdac peering down at her in concern.

"Sari, what happened? Are you alright?"

She sobbed at his questions, too distressed to answer. He sat down on the bed next to her, gently pulling her to him.

She buried herself in his lap, sobbing like the little girl she used to be, as he stroked her hair soothingly, and she cried into his lap.

She sobbed, trying and failing to find a way that this could get any better.......

* * *

Sari stared numbly at the ceiling, eyes focused on nothing.

It had been several days since her confrontation with the Autobots and she had barely moved. They had tried to get her to come back to talk to them, even standing outside the tower, begging her father to convince her.

She had explained her wishes to her father, who sadly carried them out, sending the Autobots away.

She felt numb and exhausted.

The door stirred and her father coughed gently as if he wanted to tell her something.

She didn't react, but she didn't need to, she knew.................they were gone...........

She eyes flickered shut, one lone tear slipping down her face.

Oh Primus, what had she done?

* * *

**Katfreak: Phew! The prologue is done! Not a happy start is it? What is wrong with me?! Lol, please stay tuned guys for the first chapter! Thanx, peace! :D**


	2. Years Later

**Power Source: Chap One: Years later**

**Katfreak: Whoooo! The next chapter is here! I'm so happy! :D I'm really happy this story had received such positive reviews! Thanx guys! :D Without further ado, here is the next chapter of "Power Source"! I don't own anything here.....**

* * *

Sari stared at the ceiling for a moment, eyes uncaring and unresponsive as the morning light drifted into the room.

Suddenly, her hand lashed out and slammed down on the unfortunate alarm clock next to her, before it had a chance to ring. She forced herself to sit up, checking the time.

" 7:30am" Sari thought tiredly, "Why do I always get up before then?"

Sari rose from the bed and sighed, looking out the window.

It was bright and sunny, the perfect day for going out; but why didn't she care?

She sighed, wandering off to have a shower; making a mental note to drag her dad out of his lab for breakfast.

* * *

"So, what are you planning on doing today Sari?" asked Professor Sumdac sleepily, taking an urgent slurp of coffee, having just been woken up by Sari fifteen minutes earlier, watching her tentatively as she eat her toast.

"I haven't got any work for today, so I am going out to meet Denzel later," said Sari with a shrug, "Not sure what time we will be back"

"Alright..."

Silence griped breakfast as they finished eating. Sari finished her tea before standing, smiling at her dad.

"I'm going now, so I'll see you later, ok?"

"Yes, have a nice day, Sari" smiled the Professor, giving her a quick hug before she left.

As soon as the door slid shut, a concerned look filtered onto his face.

"Oh Sari....why are you trying to hide it? You miss them......especially today...." muttered Professor Sumdac, observing the calendar and noticing the date.

"It's been 4 years..... And your still are so unhappy......I wish there was something I could do to help you....." He sighed, staring at his tea, before drinking it.

"I hope Denzel can cheer you up....."

* * *

Sari sighed, for the millionth time since she woke up, feeling rather frustrated at the turn of events.

Denzel had to cancel.

It wasn't his fault; but it annoyed her a lot.

Denzel Fanzone, the good Captain's Nephew, had been a good friend to her, the only one she really had since the Autobots left earth to return to Cybertron. For the last two years, they had been hanging out and working in similar lines, mechanics.

But there was one particular Sari refused to share with him and that was family. While Sari never talked about her family, Denzel was having open problems with his parents, which Captain Fanzone had to help him bail out of frequently. Like today.

She shook her head and wandered off into Detroit, wondering what to do.

"Go see the Dinobots and the Constucticons? Nah, Grimlock's been very moody since Mixmaster ended up on what's left of the island and met up with Scrapper....He'll go into another rampage if I go see them......"

She paused at the stop lights, watching the busy traffic zoom past as she fiddled with her bag strap.

"See Wreck-gar? No, its trash day at the dump and Wreck-gar will be too busy examines his new toys..."

She smiled softly, remembering with a laugh the last time she saw the Junkion on trash day.

She almost sighed again, when a strange idea popped into her head. _Omega Supreme_.

She frowned briefly, wondering where that had come from, wandering down the crowded street and weaving through the crowds.

_I haven't seen him for so long....so why not....? _

Sari straightened, purposefully walking down an empty side street. She clicked her backpack for a moment, shifting it to its jetpack mode.

She took a deep breath, not believing she was doing this, and launched into the sky. She swayed lightly, showing she hadn't flown in awhile, but she soon got over it and zoomed out of the bustling Detroit.

She flew out of the bustling city, across the calm sea until she reached a singular deserted island.

She stopped in midflight and froze for a moment, staring down in sadness.

_Omega Supreme..._

The giant transformer lay broken beneath her, amongst the wreckage of a former Lugnut Supreme; many shades of grey that glinted in the morning sun, almost in greeting.

She sighed and flew down next to the fallen Autobot, landing with a soft thump. She removed her backpack, leaning it against an upturned and rotting tree.

She turned, shivering in sadness as she stared at the grey shell before walking forward, running a shaking hand across his cold metal body.

She gasped, realising her eyes were filling up, causing the lean her forehead on Omega Supreme's shell.

Tears fell gently from her eyes, as memories from the past flooded back. It happened during the battle with the Lugnut Supremes.

After Optimus had taken out two of the three Supremes using the Magnus Hammer, Megatron had battled Optimus fiercely to prevent the final clone to prevent it from being defeated.

In the end, they had combined the power of the Allspark, gathered by Prowl and Jazz and their Processor over Matter technique, with the Magnus Hammer in an attempt to blast the exploding Supreme out of Detroit.

However, even with the hammer powered up so much, it could not shift the giant clone.

That was when Sari, Ratchet, Arcee, Bumblebee and Bulkhead arrived back from the moon to help, with Omega did that change.

Omega had realised what was happening and he offered to take the decepticon supreme into the atmosphere and hold him, and so the power of the hammer could be concentrated enough to destroy him.

But everyone was hesitant, as they knew the feat would cost of Omega his life.

Despite the objections of everyone present, Omega had evicted the bots and empty shells from within him and tackled his enemy and forced him into the sky.

Even though Optimus had not wanted to do it, Omega's pleas had him using the powered up hammer to destroy both bots, despite Megatron's interference.

In the fallout of the blast, the fallen and deceased body of Omega Supreme and remains the Lugnut supreme crashed onto an island outside of Detroit. The one she now visited him on.

Megatron had been caught in the blast from the hammer and sent into the atmosphere, and thought to have been destroyed in the ensuing explosion.

They had saved Detroit, with the sacrifice of their greatest ally. They thought it was all over.

Boy, were they wrong.

The Elite Guard made contact with them through the soon re-running space bridge and then came to examine the events of the Lugnut Supremes rampage.

That was when Sentinel Prime came, glaring at Sari constantly. It was several days later when he confronted her and given her the harsh truth. It made her realise a few things and made her do the hardest thing.

She sent them away; she sent her family away because she didn't want them to get into trouble because of her. But it crushed her to do so.

She shuddered again, leaning heavily on Omega, desperately rubbing her face to stop her tears. That was a long time ago, she couldn't change what happened.........even she deeply regretted it.

After they left, she had been alone for two years....trapped in her lonely misery, refusing to assume robot mode as it reminded her too much of them and trying desperately not to think of them......until she met Denzel Fanzone.....

She sighed again, sitting with her back to Omega.

She sniffed, before rummaging through her dress pocket for her phone, so she could check the time. She blinked in slight surprise when she caught sight of the time: 1:45pm.

"Whoa...." She'd been here for more than 4 hours!

She jumped to her feet, quickly grabbing her jetpack in a whirl of motion, before freezing and turning back to the fallen Omega. She stared at him for a moment before gently stroking his offlined form fondly.

"..I-I'll see you again soon, Omega.....I promise...."

She stared wistfully at him before taking off into the sky, aiming to fly back to the city before it became too late....

* * *

Sari got back to Detroit later that afternoon, mingling in amongst the afternoon crowds in the high street.

She was rather hungry, and planned to go get some lunch, maybe at Burger-bot or something, she wasn't sure.

She didn't pay much attention to events around her until a young boy knocked into her, shouting about something in the sky.

A familiar sensation entered her as she looked up quickly into the sky. Her eyes widened when she caught sight of a falling star, which was getting very close to the high street.

People screamed and rushed to exit as it came hurtling down and impacted into the pavement, sending shockwaves into the air. Sari was nearly knocked off her feet from the force of the collision.

From the smoke, a large and mutated form rose from its crater, revealing a heavily damaged Cybertronian. Its form was melted and heavily shattered making identification nearly impossible, faint traces of yellow shell could be seen, shards of its pure white optics buried into its former eye socket. Oil streaked down it body, pooling on the floor and fragments broke off and hit the floor.

She gasped in horror, as did many of the other there in the crowd.

The bot shuddered, attempting to straighten as it looked over the crowd curiously. A red light filtered out of its other remaining optic as it began to scan many people, causing many to scream at the speed of the examination.

Sari's eyes widened as the scan coursed across her body, which then caused the bot to twitch and shout a thunderous cry. "TaRgEt LoCaTeD!!"

Sari jumped back when the bot charged forward in a clumsy attempt to attack her, watching in surprise as it crunched into the pavement.

People scattered and screamed, rushing away from the scene as the bot rose up and attempted to slam her again.

She kept jumping back, "Stop that! What do you want from me?!"

The bot stared up at her and growled, "CoNfIrMaTiOn ReQuIrEd!!!"

She blinked in confusion until the bot began forming fireballs and targeted a large crowd and fired.

Sari's eyes widened in realisation and she charged forward between them. She had to do something! It was going to hurt these people because of her!

She briefly hesitated but her body quickly changed into its robot mode for the first time in years and she formed an energy ball to counteract the other attack.

A flash of white light occurred when the attack connected, casting highlights on both combatants.

She glared at the other bot, deploying her energy blades before falling into a familiar defensive position. The bots stared briefly at her, before it spoke again, "TaReGeT cONfIrMeD! tEcHnOrGaNiC!!"

Sari's optics narrowed, briefly wondering what was going on before deploying her skates. Questions had to wait!

"Hey! Big bot! Come and get me!" she shouted, throwing another energy ball before zooming off down the street. She had to lure the bot into a deserted area!

The bot shrieked in fury before racing after her, trashing and upturning cars and other machines as it passed.

Sari spun around, blasting more orbs in its face, trying to slow him down.

She whipped back around, grabbing the lamp post at the street corner and wheeling around into the other street as the damaged bot crashed down behind her, still trying to go straight.

It crashed into someone shop, accidently buried itself in rubble, causing it to roar in frustration as it burst through the rubble.

It charged at Sari again and she took off in a flash. People quickly vacated the street on sight of the menacing bot, still charging after Sari.

Sari smiled discreetly as she caught sight of a nearly empty car park. She raced towards it, jumping over the ticket barrier, disengaging her skates as she rolled into a crouched defensive position.

The bot tripped over the said barrier and staggered to stand. On sight of her, the bot slammed its fist down in her direction.

She jumped back, slashing at the melted arm, taking off a small piece.

She sped around it as fast as she could, the bot clumsily trying to follow her.

It may have been a lot bigger, and most likely stronger, then she was but it wasn't that fast, much like the rock beast from when she first upgraded herself.

She quickly blasted its face several times again, blinding it with a pain filled roar. She leapt high into the air behind the bot, switching her blades for her hammer and she pounded into the back of its processor.

The bot jerked with a cry, its plating on the back of its head falling off from the impact, oil and energon flying free everywhere as it slowly crunched into the floor.

It spazzamed once violently, before becoming still, all faint traces of colour disappearing.

Sari touched the floor with a tap, staring at her hammer in shock before looking up at the non-moving bot, its vital fluids mixings into a pool under her feet. She hadn't wanted to kill it!

Her facemask vanished in a flash and her eyes were wide and filled with tears. What the hell?!

She sent her hammer away, before extending a shaking hand to touch the damaged, dirty and unmoving bot.

"What....? Why...?" she asked it, weakly, going pale. However, as soon as she touched it, a flash occurred and she downloaded from him, eyes falling shut.

She gasped, eyes flying open as she screamed, recoiling backwards in horror. She threw herself back and hit the floor, scrabbling away as she clutched her head in pain, memories filtering in to her mind; causing her to sob uncontrollably.

This was how the Police found her, many moments later when they stormed the scene, asking her questions and demanding the answers she couldn't give in her distress.

It wasn't until a familiar roar of Captain Fanzone filled the air, making the police officers crowding her to jump back and leave her alone, that she began to feel any better.

His coat was lightly draped over her, causing her to look up at him, eyes still wide and tear filled.

He sighed, muttering something about hating machines, before helping her to her feet and guiding her back to his car.

It was half an hour later after the police had cordoned off the area, when Captain Fanzone drove her back to Sumdac tower, that she felt began to feel really tired and then drifted in a steady sleep.

* * *

When she awoke again, she was in a dazed state of tiredness induced confusion and so couldn't quite figure out why she was so tired or when or how she got back home. She felt drained and exhausted.

She raised her hand to ruffle her hair sleepily slowly easing herself into a sitting position, when she realised that it was still in robot mode.

She quickly bolted upright, not listening to her protesting body as she sat staring at her hand, before looking over at the mirror.

Her eyes widened at the sight of her robot-mode and they widened even more when the memories of earlier that day filtered into her mind, making her go freezing cold.

Her eyes filled up again at this, but she quashed her grief in favour of finding out what was going on.

She rose shakily from her bed, nearly falling down; it bitterly made he remember how she had felt after her disastrous upgrade.

She stood straighter and steeled herself before leaving her room, and wandered through the corridors, now filled with the Detroit police, trying to locate her father. She didn't have to look far, as she soon found him and Captain Fanzone, along with several police officers, and the body of the fallen bot, who had been freshly cleaned, in a nearby lab.

The room was filled with activity, so it was hardly surprising nobody noticed her entrance; not until her father looked over.

"Sari?"

"Dad," Sari greeted, the sound of her voice causing many eyes to become trained on her.

Professor Sumdac pushed past Captain Fanzone and rushed over to Sari, wrapping her into a tight hug, which she equally returned, burying her face into his neck.

"Oh Sari, thank goodness, I was so worried....."

"I-I'm ok dad....really...."

Professor Sumdac pulled back to give Sari a look, but before he could say more Captain Fanzone interrupted. "I'm sorry to interrupt but we have bigger problems here! Like when, where or why this machine attacked here!"

Both Sumdacs parted reluctantly, giving him a look, but Professor Sumdac nodded, "The robot is defiantly Cybertronian, I can tell by the wiring."

"We know that!" complained Fanzone, rubbing the back of his neck hard, "We know it's one of those machines! The question is why is here after they left 4 years ago and why did it go after Sari!"

"First of all, Captain Fanzone, it's a he! His name is Hotshot!" Sari exploded defensively, eyes narrowing, "And second of all, it wasn't his fault!"

"What?!" The Captain, as did many others, cast her an incredulous look.

"She is right, Captain," confirmed the Professor, looking between them before laying his eyes firmly on the damaged Autobot shell, "That bot has got signs of injuries that were not inflicted by his entrance from the atmosphere: there are some serious ones which were inflicted many weeks ago that should have offlined him instantly."

"Then how did it get here?" growled Fanzone, ignoring Sari's look.

"_Hotshot_was attacked by Decepticons," said Sari, gently walking over to Hotshot's damaged body, running a gentle hand across his newly cleaned arm, "He was taken prisoner and then tortured to death. He was already offline before he came here."

"Indeed" confirmed Professor Sumdac with a nod.

"Wait, how the hell did it come alive and attack you here?!" asked Captain Fanzone, eyebrow arched dangerously high.

"This is how," said the Professor, revealing cybertronian device from a table behind him, "This device has the ability to control things from long distances. I found similar receptor sensors in his arms and legs."

"Urgh, so you're telling me it-he-" correct Fanzone when Sari glared, "was like a puppet on a string?"

"Pretty much," nodded the professor.

"So, after all that, do you know what he actually wanted?!" demanded Fanzone.

Sari and the Professor shared a look, before shaking their heads. "No Captain, we unfortunately do not."

Captain Fanzone sighed, "This is why I hate machines." He turned to Sari and said, "You got anything else to add here kid?"

Sari shook her head.

"Alright then" muttered Fanzone, rubbing the back of his head irritably, "I'm outta here; I gotta go try to write up this mess up in a report to explain what happened and why half the high street is out of commission. I'm leaving the officers here for the night, alright? Just for your protection."

"Thank you captain" said the Professor, although Sari could tell he wasn't pleased with that arrangement, an opinion she openly shared too.

Captain Fanzone nodded looking between them quickly, shaking his head, before walking out the lab, cursing about machines and paperwork.

An uncomfortable silence echoed across the room, as the police's officers eyes landed on the two Sumdacs.

The Professor cleared his throat in a businessmen like manner, something he'd learned quickly after he had fired Powell, and addressed them bluntly, "If you gentlemen can excuse us, I would like to talk to my daughter in private."

The officers shared a hesitant look before nodding and then filing out. The door slid shut with a quiet click, which left the two Sumdacs in silence.

"Sari, are you ok?" asked the Professor, turning to his daughter in concern.

"Truthfully? Not really...." said Sari, not looking at him, her eyes trained on Hotshot's broken and abused shell. Her hand shakily traced over his dented and split arm, causing her to swallow harshly.

The Professor laid a hand on his daughter's shoulder, gently encouraging her to continue, knowing she should talk. "Sari, what happened?"

"Dad....he died alone and in pure agony......the Decepticons just kidnapped him from a mission and did this to him.......it hurt so much....." whispered Sari, shuddering as her eyes began to fill up again, removing her hand from him and clenching it tightly.

"It's alright Sari," sighed the Professor.

"I just...can't believe this happened...why today of all days....?" asked Sari, clenching her other hand tightly as well.

"I know, I know...it'll be ok Sari," Professor Sumdac wrapped an arm around Sari's shoulders in an embrace, trying to soothe her feelings that stirred painfully from so long ago, but he knew it wasn't working as he still remained tense and distressed.

"I can't believe this....what's going on here?" asked Sari, although no-one would give her an answer, not her father, nor the unresponsive shell of the Autobot in front of her.

* * *

Sari was tense for the next few days following the incident with Hotshot, being very jumpy and hesitant.

They had managed to convince Captain Fanzone that the police escort he had arranged for them was not necessary, which made them both breathe a sigh of relief when he agreed to remove them.

She often found herself sitting with Hotshot's shell, something that worried the Professor to no end. She tried to assure her concerned Father she was ok but she knew she was failing to convincingly do so.

But she couldn't help it.

Since she had downloaded from Hotshot, scenes from his final few cycles played back in continuous loops in her head, making her relive them almost constantly.

A particular image of what looked like the shaded figure of a horrid jackal bot with decepticon red optics and wiring that emerged like strings from his back, particularly hunted her. It reminded her of a twisted puppet-master she had seen in a horror movie once.

Whatever this particular decepticon had done, he had left a particular impression on Hotshot, terrifying the young bot until he offlined.

To try and calm herself and clear her mind, she had gone for a walk in the park, hoping it would help.

However, it did nothing. She still felt tense and irritable as she sat down next to the pond. Nothing she did could remove the image from her head. It felt awful.

It made her wonder what was happening on Cybertron......what was happening to her friends......

She shivered, those feeling of longing and loneliness stirring again, causing her to rest her forehead on her knees, before whispering, "Guys...."

"So, you're the Autobot technorganic, Sari Sumdac!" interrupted a new voice from behind her.

She whipped around and cried out in shock as a rather large decepticon loomed over her.

He was shade of hot pink and maroon, black and grey highlighting his shell. His bright red optics glowed in amusement.

She gasped in chilling realisation: it was the bot from Hotshot's memory.

He smirked at her shock and waved mockingly, "You're surprisingly cute for a disgusting organic, and you seen to have some phenomenal powers from what I understand. Did you like our present?"

She twitched in response, quickly rising to her feet and transforming to her robot mode and deploying her blades.

"I see you did," smirked the bot, "Then you know that I'm here for a reason."

"What do you want?" growled Sari, quickly falling into defensive position.

He smirk became more devious, making her back off uneasily, before he answered, "You."

He reacted faster than she did and black cables emerged from maroon containers on his back and flew at her.

She slashed and hacked as they flew at her, trying to not let one get close enough to her; knowing it could be her downfall if it did.

When one caught her wrist, she cried out and lashed out with her blades, severing it.

But made her defence crumble as a storm of binding cables encircled her, making her hack and slash at them even though several more would appear and replace what she severed.

She was so focused on slashing and hacking she didn't notice the another bots presence until it was too late.

All she saw before she hit by the a burst of energy was the outline of a hazy figure of greyish blue and light purple wielding what looked like an EMP.

Her world rapidly dissolved into black as she collapsed.

_Oh Slag....._

* * *

"What took you so long, Glit?!" demanded Nightlife, the pink and maroon bot, from his companion; observing one of his severed cables in annoyance, while another coiled around Sari tightly and lifted her unconscious form to their height.

Glit sighed, sending his EMP away, whacking his arm to properly close the panel.

"I had no idea you relied on me so much, Nightlife," said Glit quietly, eyeing him and then Sari.

Nightlife's optics narrowed and he hissed, "Don't talk to me like that, medic! You knew you would need to sedate the technorganic! You should have been here sooner!"

"I'm sorry," apologised Glit somewhat half-heartedly, before turning his full attention onto Sari, "Nightlife, we must get her back to the ship and into the proper containment fast. I have no idea how long she will be unconscious for."

Nightlife snorted, waving a dismissive hand, "If what our sources have told us is correct then it won't be for awhile. We needn't rush too much."

"But Nightlife, our orders are to bring the technorganic back to the ship to begin testing," said Glit, faint surprise etching his face, "I thought you would want to start your examination straight away....as a scientist after all..."

Nightlife snorted again, "If you're that concerned, you take her back." The cable holding Sari extended over to the decepticon medic and then released her into his servo.

"I, on the other hand, have another mission," smirked Nightlife, plucking up many of his severed cables and placing them into storage, his remaining cables retracting into their containers.

"Oh?" asked Glit, looking down worriedly at Sari, obviously worried about crushing her.

"Indeed" Nightlife looked around the park his optics settling on Sumdac tower with intent interest, "I've been ordered to give a one Professor Sumdac a friendly hello from Lord Megatron....."

".................Don't be too long, Nightlife. We still need to leave this planet before we attract unwanted attention........."

"This won't take long....." smiled Nightlife, who started towards Sumdac tower, while Glit turned, staring down at Sari for a moment, sighing tenderly, before to their ship carefully cradling Sari as gently as he could.

"This is going to be a long few cycles...."

* * *

**Katfreak: Done! Oh dear, what have i done?! I regret nothing! Poor Sari......Oh and for those who are wondering the guys will be back next chapter ok? That's all I'll say for now.....Enjoy the cliffhanger guys! XD Please do review and stay tuned! Seeya!**


	3. The Boys are back in town

**Power Source: Chap Two: The boys are back in town**

**KatfreaK: Yo guys! The next chapter is here! Thanx to everyone who commented for the last few chapters; they have helped alot! :D For those who were wondering: Sari's body doesn't viably age because she is tryingto catch up with her bodies age since her upgrade. I hope that helps! I don't own TFA! Enjoys!**

* * *

Space was rather quiet, too quiet.

Optimus frowned, staring across the broad rocky area he was investigating. He looked around, carefully scanning the area for any of the tell-tale signs.

Unfortunately, he found none. Sighing, he shook his head and then opened his commlink. "Ratchet, do you read me?"

"Loud and clear, Prime" confirmed the grumpy medic. "Everything is clear in my sector; I'm ready to move on."

"Fine, that's another few cycles wasted...."

"I know," sighed the young Prime again, continuing the conversation as he scrabbled over some rocks, "But this is what we've been ordered to do, Ratchet..."

"I know," growled Ratchet, reclining back in his chair, staring at the screen, "But why do we have to do this?"

"Because Rodimus and his team were attacked here by Decepticons," Optimus reminded him, "And after they returned, one member short, we've been ordered to find any trace of him and any clues as to why the Decepticons were here."

"..I still say Loudmouth Prime and the Elite Guard should be doing this," grumbled the medic, causing Optimus to smile.

"I suppose....by the way, have the others commed in yet?"

"Not since the last time you did, I'm still waiting....?"

Several loud beeps were heard across Prime's link.

"Speak of the devils...." muttered Ratchet, opening the commlinks so everyone could hear, "What you got, kids?"

"Nothing here, Ratchet," said Bulkhead, clearly sounding apologetic. "

I'm the same Ratchet," said Prowl's voice over the link, "No signs, absolutely nothing." "

Oh great," grumbled Ratchet, before turning his attention to the final member, "What you got kid?"

Silence greeted them, causing all to be concerned.

"Kid?"

"Little Buddy?"

Bumblebee still remained silent.

"Bumblebee, please report," sighed Optimus, making his presence known.

"......The same as it's been for the last few hundred cycles: absolute slag all"

"Bumblebee, please don't be like this," Optimus stopped, looking half concerned and half annoyed.

"Boss-bot how do you expect me to be when we've been out here for the last-?"

"2 megacycles?"

"-2 megacycles – thanks Prowl- and we've found slag all out here! We're not gonna find anything!"

"But, BB, we gotta try!"

"Bulkhead is right, Bumblebee," agreed Optimus, trying to make the speedy youngster see sense, "We have to find something, Rodimus is counting on us. So is the rest of his crew! We have to find Hotshot."

"Tch, fine; I'm moving on then..." growled Bumblebee, clearly not wanting to talk anymore.

"Alright, report in soon please Bumblebee; don't give ratchet more work to do!"

Bumblebee snorted, commlink cutting off. A collective group sigh was heard on the commlink, "Prime..."

"Yes, I know..."

"Boss-bot, he's been like this since we left earth...."

"He misses Sari..."

"We all do," assured Prowl.

"...yes...."

"He can't believe she wanted us to go....that's why he's like this..." said Bulkhead sadly.

A small silence echoed across the link, which Optimus sighed and broke, "Well, let's move on...we have more areas to search..."

"Alright...I'll contact in anything I find," said Prowl, commlink cutting off.

"Me too," said Bulkhead, also cutting the link, leaving the Prime and Ratchet alone.

"You ok Prime?"

"Yeah...I'll check in again soon Ratchet...."

With that Prime cut the link, turning to look around again to look up into space.

A sad look crossed his optics, as memories of Sari and their final encounter filtered across his mind.

He missed her....they all did.....

He shook his head, turning away to return to his mission.

* * *

It was half a cycle later after talking with Prime, when Ratchet began to doze off at the control panel.

Ok the seat wasn't as comfy as Omega's, but he was too tired and thoroughly bored to care. They had been here for a long time, since Rodimus and his security team had been attacked surveying here.

They had been assigned this mission, despite their ranking, mainly because of the fact the Elite Guard and surrounding teams were being pushed to their limits with all the recent Decepticon activity.

While this was better than fixing spacebridges, hands down, it was still very boring, especially as he had to stay to man the ship, while the other investigated.

He jerked, when a loud beep rang through the air, indicating someone was contacting them. He sat up straight and opened the link, "Ratchet here."

"Yo, Doc-bot," chimed Jazz's familiar tones across the link before his face appeared onscreen, sounding tired despite being so cheerful. "Hows it hangin'?"

"If you mean have we found anything, then the answer is no," said Ratchet, "But otherwise, everything is fine."

"I see....we'll I got some big news for you guys; is everybody with you or...?"

"No, they're still searching," said Ratchet, staring at the white ninja curiously, "What you got?"

"I think you all need to hear this...."

"Alright, alright, I'll call them up. Hang on a nanoclick...." muttered Ratchet, rapidly tapping into the console to activate a hailing frequency.

All four of them responded immediately, Prime answering first, "Ratchet? What's the matter?"

"We got a call for all of us from the Elite Guard."

"Yo guys, Hows it hangin'?" chirped Jazz over the line.

A familiar tut was heard over the link, Ratchet noticing it made Jazz smile, "What's the matter, Prowler? Not happy to hear from me?"

"We are meant to be working here, Jazz," Prowl chided his sparkmate good naturedly, trying to ignore Bulkhead and Bumblebee's giggles.

That caused a Jazz to grin more, "I'm workin' too you know; in fact, I've dropped you a line to tell you Ultra Magnus wants to see you cats back at base!"

That got all the bots attention.

"What? What for?" asked Optimus in surprise and confusion, a thought shared by all members of the team.

"Not sure," laughed Jazz sheepishly, "I wasn't told much; the commander just asked me to call you guys back 'cause he needed a word with you."

"Thanks Jazz..." muttered Optimus, "We'll head back to the ship now and then back to base."

"'Kay, see you guys soon. I'll be waiting...."

Jazz smirked, quirky a wave at Ratchet before cutting off the communication, face disappearing from the screen to leave Ratchet in the dim room.

"Ratchet?"

"Yes Prime?"

"What is this about? Did he tell you?"

"No."

A sigh was heard before the young prime answered again, "Alright...we have our orders.....Autobots, Transform and meet back on ship..."

A collective sound of agreement was heard, before everyone cut off the link.

This left Ratchet alone, silently wondering what everyone was thinking: what the slag....?

* * *

It was another half a cycle later when prime and the others made it back to the ship and took a further 2 cycles to return back to Cybertron.

All the while, everyone nervously wondered what the newly recovered Magnus wanted. Prime did his best to soothe the group, as all seemed very nervous, although they had no idea why.

"For the last time, Bumblebee," began Optimus tiredly as he walked down the gangplank, "I'm sure it isn't that bad, whatever Ultra Magnus wants us for."

"But Boss-bot what could he want? We're repair bots! What can we do?"

"We aren't simply repair bots, Bumblebee," sighed Prowl in annoyance, stalking past him and stopping next to Optimus.

"Well I still say-!"

Thankfully Bumblebee's rant was cut off by a familiar shout. "Yo guys!"

"Jazz you have the best timing!" called Ratchet, as the white ninja materialised from the crowd, just left of Bulkhead causing him to yelp and jump back in surprise.

"I do?" Jazz looked confused for a moment but shrugged it off, instead looking around at the bots surrounding him, though his gaze lingered on Prowl for a moment longer before speaking, "Well I got asked to take you straight to Ultra Magnus, guys, so let's go."

"Do you know why, Jazz?" asked Optimus, as the group moved to leave the landing bay. "Sorry OP," said Jazz, shaking his head, "As i said earlier, I don't know why, I was just told to get you back here."

"That's alright...but I wonder why he did get-!" Optimus paused and stared ahead.

The others caught the look with concerned and looked ahead, as the irritated form of Sentinel prime stomped into view, the jettwins close behind.

"Sentinel" said Optimus, more out of politeness then anything, tension still clear in his voice.

The former Magnus glared at Optimus, glared at Jazz and the other and then shoved past.

Both Jetfire and Jetstorm looked concerned by Sentinel's lack of response, and followed after; briefly turning to the group to smile and wave.

As soon as they were out of sight, Bumblebee snorted, "Geez, Cold shoulder much?"

"Sentinel's always like that," shrugged Ratchet, "especially now Ultra Magnus is back and he's a prime again."

"Thank Primus," smirked Prowl.

Everyone laughed at the statement, including Optimus, whose smile was more discreet. "Yes....shall we carry on?"

"Sure," Jazz laughed, still amused, who had creeped over to Prowl and nudged him playfully. Prowl swatted him and Jazz took it as a sign to get back to work.

They carried on through the base until they reached a reception room, which was full of security personal.

They stared at the crew, clearly sizing them up.

"Hey guys! These are the bots that Ultra Magnus said he wanted to see" said Jazz, trying to qwell the tense air.

A particular bot, coloured blue, white and lime green, nodded, "We know, he told us already, go ahead."

"Thanks," smiled Optimus, speaking for the crew.

The other bot shrugged before going to the communication panel, muttering something into it before the door opened.

Prime shared a look with Ratchet, before heading in, Jazz close by his side.

Ultra Magnus was not standing when they entered; he was sitting at a desk, looking over a data pad tiredly.

Since his reawakening and retaking of command, he had poured himself into his work. It showed quite clearly on his faceplate how tired he was, especially as he was still recovering from Shockwave's attack.

It had concerned many when he took control again so soon afterward awakening; but many were still grateful from being freed from Sentinel and his tyranny.

He looked up, over the data pad before placing it down and rising, using the Magnus hammer to help.

"Sir" Optimus saluted respectfully, the others following in suit.

Ultra Magnus waved them off, "At ease. You don't need to do that"

They relaxed slightly, still slightly tense.

"I guess you are wondering why I have called you all here today," stated the Magnus, looking them all up and down, "As you are all well aware, Decepticon activity has been rising for the last few stellar cycles. We have stretched are resources to counter them."

Optimus nodded, trying not to flinch at Bumblebee's clear expression of "so what?"

Ratchet noticed it too and poked the young mecha, who protested lightly with a glare.

Prowl and Jazz sighed and Bulkhead tried not to notice.

Ultra Magnus appeared not to notice, or didn't react, and so continued, "Recently, we accidently detected a ship of decepticon design heading away from the main areas of decepticon activity. To another star system, one you are all familiar with."

Everyone stared at the Magnus, a small stab of nerves and familiarity making itself apparent.

"Sir?" asked Optimus, imploring him to continue.

The Magnus caught his gaze. "We sent a probe after the ship, which headed to Earth's solar system. It left a cycle later. "

Dread shot through everyone, Bumblebee and Bulkhead clearing expressing their surprise and shock. Prowl clenched his fist and Ratchet softly cursed. Optimus didn't break Ultra Magnus's gaze, although he was sure his expression clearly showed the Magnus how he felt.

"We do not know what their intentions are, or were, on Earth, but we cannot let it go unchecked. That is why I am assigning you and your team, Optimus Prime, to return to earth and investigate what the Decepticons wanted there."

Clear shock and disbelief was on all their faceplates, as they stared at the older mecha in shock.

"You and your team have previous experience on Earth, better then the Elite Guard, so I am sure you will be more able to investigate thoroughly."

"Y-yes sir," stammered Optimus, finally finding his voice.

Ultra Magnus nodded, "Make your preparation, Optimus Prime, and then head off. Good luck and report back your findings, do you understand?"

"Yes Sir," nodded Optimus, less shaky.

"Good, you are dismissed. Jazz, I'd like you to remain."

"Yes sir." Jazz didn't look too happy about this order and sent them a look which clearly showed it. Prowl nodded to him, a look of understanding on his face, which caused Jazz to smile at his sparkmate.

The Autobots filed out of the office, still slightly shell- shocked. They left the office and reception, before pausing.

"Boss-bot?"

"Yes Bumblebee?"

"D-did Ultra Magnus just say we could go back to Earth?"

"Yes Bumblebee, he did."

Bumblebee shivered slightly, swaying dangerously, "Oh primus.....someone pinch me...tell me I'm not dreaming."

Bulkhead leaned over and poked Bumblebee hard in the back of the head.

Even though the younger bot twitched in annoyance, he stopped short, a wide smile spreading across his features.

"We're going to back to earth...." whispered Prowl, also sounding as shocked.

"That means..." muttered Ratchet.

"We'll see her again..." continued Bulkhead, looking down at Bumblebee, who was shivering still.

"Sari....."

"Yeah...." smiled Prime weakly, a slight frown working its way into his expression.

"What's the matter Prime?" asked Ratchet, noticing ht prime's tone; this attracted all of their attention, especially Bumblebee.

"It's just....what she said before....she might not want us to come back....."

"I don't believe that, Boss bot!" stated Bumblebee firmly, "I won't believe she hates us! I know she'll be happy to see us!"

"I agree with Bumblebee" agreed prowl with a nod.

"He's right Boss bot!" Bulkhead joined in similarly, a look of pure hope and sincerity on his face.

Optimus shared a look with Ratchet, who sighed and shrugged.

The young prime swallowed gently, optics closing gently.

A sigh escaped him, and a tried smile crossed his face, "I guess we won't know until we get there. Let's go."

Everyone smiled, nodding in excitement heading off to the landing bay.

Finally......they would go back......

* * *

It took several cycles, or a week or so, for the Autobots to make the journey to earth.

The Earth's space bridge had been shut by recommendation of the Autobot council after the crew had returned, so they couldn't make it back to earth that way.

Excitement and nervousness was clearly visible.

They had to smile, especially at Bumblebee's antics, as he zoomed into the control room not long after they had left Cybertron in his earth alt-mode.

He was clearly excited to be returning to the organic planet and had kept the mode in case they did have the chance to return.

Soon, they found themselves in the atmosphere for earth; they were so close.....

"Ratchet, can you do me a favour and scan the surrounding area for decepticon energy signatures?" asked Optimus, rising from his seat.

Ratchet nodded inciating the scan.

A moment later, the medic cursed.

"What's up doc-bot?" asked Bulkhead from his position nearby.

"There are really strong traces of decepticon energy signatures surrounding earth," grumbled the medic, "Like they have been here. But they aren't now."

It was tense for a moment before Optimus cleared the air, "Well we'll have to see when we get down there. Prowl, set us on a course for landing near Detroit."

"Yes sir" nodded prowl, carrying out the order.

Soon they found themselves just off the shore of the island with Omega Supreme's remains. They paused briefly for ratchet's sake, as he looked out and down the window at their fallen comrade.

"We're back, Omega..." he whispered softly, resting a hand on the window, "Sorry it's been so long..."

Optimus reached over and lightly rested a comforting hand on the medic's shoulder, who sighed and nodded. "I'm alright Prime...."

When they were sure ratchet was ok, they carried on, landing on a nearby vacant lot, quite near to their old base.

Bumblebee was the first off the ship and zoomed around the area in his car-mode.

Prowl and Bulkhead quickly followed, transforming briefly into their alt-modes before transforming back again.

Prime laughed as he wandered down the gangplank, Ratchet muttering something about hyperactivity next to him. It felt rather good to be back.

"Everyone!" called Optimus, drawing all their attention to him. "I know we are all excited to be back," he looked over at Bumblebee particularly, who grinned at him, "But remember we still do have a mission to carry out."

"But boss-bot! We just got here! We gotta see sari first!" protested Bumblebee, crossing his arms.

Optimus stared at the speedster, sighing, "If we do, will you promise to focus on the mission?"

Smiles were beginning to cross all their faces. "Yes!"

"...Alright...we'll go see sari first..."

Bumblebee's expression grew even wider in delight and he bounced around excitedly, Prowl snorting in amusement at the small bot.

"Alright Autobots, Transform and roll out!"

They didn't need to be told twice and soon they were heading off to Sumdac tower. "

"Hey kid! Slow down, or you'll get a ticket!" shouted Ratchet at Bumblebee as the Camero zoomed ahead.

"But Ratchet-!" whined Bumblebee, who stopped short when a small explosion sounded nearby.

"That didn't sound good" said Prowl as he stopped next to him, hearing the Police siren's clearly.

Soon, they saw the cause of the explosion, as the Angry Archer came zooming through the street, bags of money at his belt and now riding a land sledge.

He turned when the Police raced after him, firing another exploding arrow, causing many to swerve or skid to a halt to avoid.

"Be gone naves!!! Thou cannot hope to qwell the Angry Archer this time!" he jeered as he turned back.

He noticed the Autobots vehicle modes and shouted, "Thou best move, or feel thy speed run through thou!"

"Oh no we won't" called Optimus, making the Archer yelp in surprise when he transformed into his bipedal mode. The others quickly followed in suit. "

Nooooo! Not you!" yelled the Archer, swerving to avoid them.

This attempt failed miserably when he was simply plucked off the sledge by Optimus, which zoomed out of control nearby.

Ratchet's magnetism stopped the vehicle before it crashed into and pedestrians or other cars.

"Let me go!!" shouted the Archer, clearly in frustration.

"Sure...we'll let you go;" smiled Bumblebee, "When Fanzone and his boys get here!"

"And I think we will be taking those back don't you?" asked Prowl, removing the bags of money from Archer and handing them to Bulkhead.

The Archer cursed in fury.

Several moments later, the Police did arrive. Although some recognised the Autobots, some were still unsure and slightly daunted by the size of them.

They handed both the protesting Archer and the money over to the Police, so they could both be taken into custody.

While they watched, a small familiar car screeched up the street towards the scene before pulling up sharply.

Captain Fanzone darted out of the car, clearly irritated and staring at them.

"Captain Fanzone" greeted Prowl, with a slight nod.

"It's been awhile, Captain Fanzone" nodded Optimus with a smile. One Captain clearly did not share.

Prime was about to speak again when Bumblebee shrieked, "Hey did you lose some weight? Your skinnier then I remember!"

Optimus nearly face-palmed, ratchet whacking Bumblebee up the back of his head for the statement. This seemed to make the Captain even madder.

"YOU ARE FREAKIN' LATE!!!" he roared, very angry.

"Captain Fanzone, we just got here..." Prowl said, trying to soothe the Captain.

"You wanna know why I'm so mad right now?! I've had to deal with the paperwork after a puppet one of you trashed downtown Detroit three weeks ago! And to make matters worse, Sari's been kidnapped by what is reported to be a decepticon and the same decepticon put Professor Sumdac in the hospital two weeks ago!! Now you can understand why I think you guys are so late!!"

Shock and horror flashed across all their faceplates at the information. Bumblebee staggered back, using Bulkhead, whose face was set really panicked, to steady himself.

"Sari..." he whimpered.

Prowl's expression was of pure surprise and his fist clenched gently.

Prime stared down, optics very wide before quickly looking up at Ratchet, who looked angry and horrified.

"W-when did this happen?!" asked Optimus shakily, leaning down to the Police Captain.

"Two weeks ago; the professor was attacked and nearly left for dead; he was lucky the decepticon didn't crush him."

"Is he ok?" asked Bulkhead naively, causing the Captain to glare at him.

"If you count having several broken ribs and limbs, especially his legs, a damaged back and severe wounds as ok, yeah he is."

They all grimaced at the description of the Professor's wounds.

"Is he...?" began Optimus, who paused when Captain Fanzone nodded.

"Yeah, he's awake, amazingly, but bedridden. He is frantic with worry about Sari and has been waiting for you to come back."

"Can you take us to him?" asked Prime, clearly wanting to speak to him.

"I'll see what I can do, I can't promise anything but I can try; come on" nodded Fanzone, who indicated for them to follow him.

They all transformed and followed him. They were all frantic with worry...

..Sari.........

* * *

Once they arrived at the hospital, the hospital staff were shocked by the Autobots arrival and the Captain demanding that they could see the professor. T

hey protested that it was not a good idea with the professor in the critical state he was in, but after much arguing and pleading, especially on the Autobots part, they grudgingly wheeled the bedridden professor out of the hospital.

They all flinched at the sight of the Professor. He was worse than Fanzone described.

He was swathed in bandages and the rest of his body was covered in plaster, around all his limbs; only a small portion o his face could be seen, but this side was more than enough to recognise him.

He stared up tiredly at the autobot's concerned faces and sighed, "Oh thank god....you came.....thank you...."

"Easy Professor," Optimus said, kneeling to reach the damaged organic, "We...we're so sorry...."

"No...It wasn't your fault....how could you have known....until now.....?" sighed Sumdac, gasping in pain.

"What happened here Professor?" asked Bumblebee in concern, standing next to Prime. "A-a few weeks ago....a-a- heavily damaged cybertronian landed in the middle of Detroit.....h-he attacked Sari a-and she had to battle him.....when she defeated him...we found he was already dead...a puppet controlled shell...sari said...his name was H-Hotshot....."

He coughed, noticing the look on all the autobot's faces, before continuing.

"H-his body is in my lab....Sari was so horrified by what happened to him...and was so severely upset....."

A look of faint hope crossed Bumblebee's faceplate.

"A-a few days later...she went out....I was in my lab.....when a decepticon appeared.....h-he said his name was n-nightlife....and then he....." he trailed off and the Autobots didn't need to know what happened next.

"W-when i-i came too..here in the hospital...I was told she was gone...taken by the decepticon....."

Tears welled up in his eyes, "P-please...help us! Please save her! She needs you all...right now more than anything....."

"Professor....did Sari mean what she said? That she hated us?" asked Optimus, bracing himself for the reply.

"...N-no...s-she never did....."

Several sharp hitches of breathe were heard behind Prime.

He heard Bumblebee whisper behind him, "I knew it...it knew it!!!"

"Professor...why did she...?"

"I-i don't know...she never told me why......p-please....will you help her...?!"

Prime rose, looking over his shoulder at his crew, who all nodded expressions angry and worried. "You needn't have asked us that professor Sumdac; we will find her and bring her home....I promise...."

"T-thank you-!!" sobbed the grateful father, a nurse quickly goin to his side.

Prime turned fully to his crew; "Let's do it."

They all nodded.

They would find her and bring her home again.

* * *

Blue optic blinked hazily as the world came back into focus.

At first, sari couldn't see much, that's how blurry her eyes were.

As she blinked, her vision began to improve and red lights began to come into focus.

It was a few more blinks later that she realised in horror that they were decepticon optics.

She yelled in surprise when the forms of the two Decepticons from earlier stared up at her; panic weaved into her when she realised she was bound and trapped within a machine with a glass front.

"Ah...now your awake!" smirked Nightlife, tapping lightly on the glass, like a kid on the glass at the zoo, "How are you doing?"

"What the hell?! What have you done to me?! Where am I?!" shouted Sari, thrashing in her restraints.

"Please stop that," called Glit, looking worried, "You'll hurt yourself if you carry on like that!"

"I don't care!!" she shouted angrily back at him, "What are you going to do to me?! What do you want from me?!"

Nightlife sneered at the tiny technorganic, which cause her to shiver, "We need an interesting specimen like you...after all you have phenomenal powers, especially after your little upgrade there..."

He leeringly looked over her form, before looking back at her, "Your powers will be enough to help us fight the Autobot scum!"

"N-n-no! I'd never help you!" she cried angrily.

She then paused and asked, "H-how did you know i upgraded myself...?!"

A cold laugh echoed across the room, causing Nightlife and Glit to turn around and bow.

"They know because i told them, Sari Sumdac," stated a chillingly familiar voice. Sari gasped as the figure stepped into the light, revealing Megatron; he was scarred and dented but still as terrifying as ever.

"And now, you'll be helping us to defeat them...."

Sari's optics widened in horror as she stared at the decepticon leader, making her wonder how the slag she was going to get out of this one.....

* * *

**Katfreak: Oh dear, what have i done now?! LOL Want do you guys think? I hope you enjoyed! I'd appreciate the reviews and i'll see you soon :D Seeya guys! XD**


	4. Target Confirmed

**Power Source: Chap Three: Target Confirmed**

**Katfreak: Whoa! I'm so sorry about the wait guys! I have not had the time to sit down and write this sucker....now I have ;D Thanx for all the favs and comments you guys i am soooo grateful! Here is the next chapter! The longest one I've done yet! LOL!!! I don't own TFA! Enjoy!**

* * *

"Are you sure, Optimus Prime?"

Optimus nodded to his commander, eyes focused on the screen, "Yes sir."

"I see...The Decepticons have kidnapped the technorganic human Sari Sumdac, nearly murdered her creator and the missing spacebridge security Autobot is dead, his body on earth...." murmured Ultra Magnus.

"Yes sir..."

"Return back to Cybertron, Optimus Prime, with the body, the council will need to hear this...and the Spacebridge Security team will need to be told...."

"Sir, if you'll permit me, I will speak to Rodimus Prime and his team...."volunteered Optimus, eyes softening lightly.

Ultra Magnus nodded, "Permission granted; thank you Optimus Prime."

The Commander stiffened, turning slightly as someone spoke to him off side quietly, before he turned back to the screen, eyes slightly harder. "Return soon Optimus Prime, we have much to discuss."

"Sir" Optimus saluted quickly, as the screen flickered and the Autobot commander vanished.

The young Prime straightened, turning back around, coming face to face with Prowl and Bumblebee.

"Is everything ready?" asked Optimus, sitting back on the control panel.

"Nearly," nodded Prowl, "Ratchet and Bulkhead are still loading Hotshot's body into the medbay. As soon as they finish they said they will let us know."

"Good, then we can hope to be underway soon."

"Boss-bot, do we really have to get the council's permission to go find Sari?" asked Bumblebee, eyes narrow in clear annoyance.

He hadn't taken the news of sari's capture well; he was snappy and agitated and the further news of going back to Cybertron to speak to the council did little to improve his mood.

Prime didn't really blame him, but knew that wouldn't help the situation.

"Yes we do, Bumblebee. We can't just take off and do this ourselves; we may need help, especially if the Decepticons are involved."

Optimus rose off the control panel, leaning forward to place a hand on the speedster's shoulder. "I know how worried you are about Sari; we all understand and feel the same."

"But we can't rush in blindly, she could get hurt otherwise," agreed Prowl, optics trained on the younger bot.

Bumblebee sighed, looking up at his commanding officer in frustration, "But Boss-bot, they could be hurting her...."

Prime steeled himself slightly at Bumblebee's comment, sharing a look with Prowl, who was frowning.

The thought had most likely occurred to everyone, but no-one had been brave enough to voice it until now.

Optimus intaked sharply before answering, "That might be a possibility, Bumblebee....But we have to wait until we find her.....But I'm sure she will be ok."

He did his best to smile, trying to encourage the younger bot into believing him.

Bumblebee stared at him for a moment, disbelievingly, before he nodded in hesitant confirmation.

A rather pregnant silence occurred before Prime's commlink went off. He answered immediately, "Optimus here."

"Prime," said Ratchet, voice echoing, "Hotshot has been loaded and secured. We're ready down here."

"Thanks Ratchet," said the young Prime gratefully, nodding to Prowl and Bumblebee, who quickly went to run last minute checks, "We'll see you and Bulkhead back up here soon. We're gonna start the take off procedures."

"Right, be up there soon. Ratchet out."

The link cut off, leaving Optimus to straighten before looking around. He quickly met Bumblebee's expectant optics. He nodded to Bumblebee, who didn't break eye contact with him.

They were on the way, and soon they would be able to find Sari. He knew they would.

* * *

The journey back to Cybertron was quiet and uneventful for the most part, but for Bumblebee it wasn't quick enough.

He knew the ship couldn't move faster than it was already going but he wanted to get back as soon as possible.

As soon as they spoke to Ultra Magnus and the council, they could go find Sari, rescue her from the decepticreep clutches and bring her back. That was what he all he wanted.

They soon arrived back on Cybertron to a fairly large welcoming party, Ultra Magnus and the other familiar members of the Elite Guard, Jazz whose face was tightly lipped, and the Jettwins, who both looked concerned.

Unfortunately the group also included Sentinel Prime, who scowled at them as they emerged; carrying Hotshots form out on the mobile casket. Bumblebee glared at the large blue chinned Prime.

He wasn't afraid of him anymore as he had been during his training, but he still intensely disliked him for some reason other than his obnoxiousness; he wasn't sure what.

Several medics rushed forward, taking Hotshot's casket before nodding curtly and rushing away with his body.

Bumblebee watched them as they went, quickly sharing a look of pity with Bulkhead, who swallowed harshly.

He had never been good with dealing with deceased shells...neither was Bumblebee really....

He turned back when Optimus walked down the gangplank to salute to Ultra Magnus, who quickly waved it off.

"All of you please come, the council are awaiting news."

Prime looked back over his crew, before turning and walking forward to stand the other side of the Magnus, something that clearly annoyed Sentinel Prime who occupied the other side.

Bumblebee smirked in amusement as he fell in behind, next to Ratchet and Bulkhead, the former who was scowling at the blue Prime.

"Let's go," called the Magnus as he motioned for them to follow. They all followed the Magnus, rather quiet.

Bumblebee glared ahead indiscriminately, very frustrated.

Looking around, he noticed Jetfire and Jetstorm looking over at him, weak smiles on their faceplates. He struggled to smile back, before shaking his head. He didn't need to look up to tell they were now frowning.

Bumblebee looked away from them for a moment, before noticing Prowl and Jazz were now standing together, hands brushing comfortingly.

He felt a slight pang of annoyance and slight jealously, servo clenching.

His expression must have it obvious, as Ratchet poked him harshly in the back of the head.

He froze at his silent yet harsh expression, before looking down ashamedly.

He was right, it wasn't either of their faults so he shouldn't be snappy or angry with anyone else; he was just really worried about Sari. Taking it out on the others was not going to help.

He jumped when Bulkhead suddenly tapped his shoulder, drawing his attention to him.

Bulkhead discreetly pointed to the two Primes and Magnus in front of them. Bumblebee noticed that that were quietly talking, to he strained his audios to hear what they were saying.

"...Are you sure, Optimus Prime?"

"Yes sir...we found no other traces of the Decepticons other then the residue of energy. They are long gone."

"Didn't we think that last time Optimus?" growled Sentinel, "And there still were!"

"They were last time, sentinel," agreed Optimus, optics narrowing, "But they are gone now. We have the scans for proof!"

"And I believe him, Sentinel Prime," Ultra Magnus cut in, before Sentinel could speak again, "But that leaves us with one more problem...the technorganic femme...."

"Sir, I would like to talk to you on that front," stated Optimus, "I and my team would like to request your permission to rescue her from the Decepticons."

"WHAT?!" roared Sentinel, making everyone jump and drawing attention to them.

Bumblebee flinched; trust him to open his oversized mouth.

Ultra Magnus was the only one who seemed to be unaffected by Sentinel's outburst, but he did look like he was carefully thinking. "Optimus Prime....I know how close you are to the femme...and how concerned you must be for her safety...but this matter must be discussed with the council...I cannot grant you permission until afterwards..."

That caused a loud growl from Bumblebee, which caused everyone to turn to him.

"With all due respect, sir, you are the commander; you can grant us permission without the council's permission as you over-rule them."

"Bumblebee!" gasped someone, who Bumblebee wasn't sure, but that didn't matter as he glared at the commander. He didn't notice Sentinel's screams about his insolence, or Optimus' apologising for him.

Ultra Magnus held his glare, slightly surprised, before he seemed to search the younger bot's faceplate. The expression subtly softened into an understanding one before he spoke, snapping his head around to addressed Sentinel Prime harshly. "Sentinel Prime, be quiet."

That immediately made the pompous prime shut up.

Ultra Magnus turned back to Bumblebee, "I can understand and sympathise your concern, young one, but you must understand I will not rule out the wishes of the council, I am not a dictator."

That caused Sentinel to flinch next to him, and nervous smiles to flit across the faces of the other Elite Guards. Bumblebee stared for a little longer before nodding.

"Um, sir?" asked a new voice from behind Ultra Magnus, causing many to look around.

A white and pink mecha with red and purple trimming, stood nervously before them, looking over the group. It was then that they noticed they were standing outside the council chamber, several council guards now staring at them.

Ultra Magnus looked over the group, optics lingering on Bumblebee for a moment, before he addressed them all. "Optimus Prime, you and your crew must remain outside; I and the members of the elite guard will speak to the council. We will tell you the decision of the council."

Bumblebee saw Optimus nod, still slightly worried about his outburst.

The Magnus motioned for the Elite Guard to enter the chamber, which they did. Jazz sent a quick look over his shoulder before he disappeared, the jettwins quickly following.

Sentinel glared at Bumblebee for a moment, quickly swapping it to Optimus before turning and stomping into the chamber.

Ultra Magnus nodded to them, causing many to motion respectfully, before he turned and entered the chamber too.

The council security bots quickly shut the door, leaving the group of maintenance bots alone outside, waiting.

And for Bumblebee, it meant another agonising wait.

Oh great.

* * *

"Bumblebee!" growled Optimus as soon as the door closed, turning to the yellow scout, "That was uncalled for!"

Ratchet wore a similar look of disapproval, while Prowl and Bulkhead looked like they wanted to face palm.

Bumblebee sighed, shrugging widely, "What? I'm sorry boss-bot but I had to say something! I thought he wasn't going to say yes!"

"He might not do after that display, kid," sighed Ratchet, tapping the side of his faceplate.

"Ratchet is right, Bumblebee," said Optimus, crossing his arms, "he doesn't have to grant us permission."

"Look I'm sorry alright..."

A silence echoed for a moment.

"Let's hope he does," said Bulkhead, trying to clear the tense air.

"For Sari's sake," added Prowl, who quickly looked over at the door intently. This caused Bumblebee to twitch and Prime's expression to soften lightly.

There was another moment of silence before Optimus spoke, "While we are waiting, I'm going to go speak to Rodimus. I promised to tell....him and his team about Hotshot....."

"Right Prime," nodded Ratchet, joined by Bulkhead and less obviously by Prowl.

Bumblebee was silent for a moment, which Optimus noticed. He coughed lightly to get his attention. "Bumblebee, I'd like you to come with me."

Bumblebee's optics widened slightly, before he smiled gently and nodded, "Sure, boss-bot."

Optimus smiled, "Thanks. Alright; we'll be back soon."

With that he walked down the corridor, followed closely by Bumblebee as they headed off to the medbay.

They walked in silence for awhile until they had nearly reached their destination. They were riding in a turbo lift when Bumblebee finally looked up uneasily at Prime. "Optimus?"

"Yes Bumblebee?"

"....I'm sorry about my outburst earlier....."

Optimus expression softened lightly as he looked down at him. "It's alright...your frustrated and worried about Sari....I should have known you would be concerned...."

"I'm still sorry..." he blushed slightly, avoiding Prime's gaze.

Optimus smiled, his expression hardening as the lift stopped and the door swished open.

Entering the medbay, a medic quickly caught sight of them and scuttled over, "Are you Optimus Prime?"

"Yes..."

"I see, Ultra Magnus told us to expect you. Rodimus prime and his crew are in the room at the end of the corridor, Alpha 9."

"Thanks," nodded Optimus, heading off down the corridor. The Medic stared curiously at Bumblebee, but shrugged and went back to his duties.

The Prime and young scout headed down the corridor, avoiding medics and patients. They soon stopped at the door labelled Alpha 9.

Optimus straightened lightly, looking over at Bumblebee before turning back to knock on the door. A faint call of "Come in" was heard and then the door opened.

Optimus and Bumblebee entered the room, eyes looking over Rodimus Prime and his crew.

Ironhide and Brawn sat on the berths closest to them, looking like they had just finished being repaired.

Ironhide stared at Bumblebee curiously then scowled, clearly remembering him from training academy. Bumblebee winced, optics averted. Brawn noticed, looking back and forth between the two bots curiously.

Red Alert was one her feet, standing next to Rodimus Prime who sat on the berth's opposite his other teammates, repairing something on the other Prime's shoulder.

Rodimus looked over at them, waving Red Alert away, and smiled, "Optimus Prime; it's good to see you. What do we owe the pleasure?"

Optimus averted his optics. Rodimus was very friendly towards him and his crew after they met for the first time. He didn't really want to be the bearer of bad news, but......

"Rodimus...Me and my crew are the ones that have been investigating the area you and your team got attacked in. And to find out about what happened to your crewmate Hotshot...."

They all perked up intently, staring at the red and blue Prime.

"Yes...Optimus?" Asked Rodimus carefully, looking concerned by the fact they were not looking at him.

"We have some news...," Optimus trailed off for a moment, continuing after a moment, "Hotshot is offline....I'm so sorry Rodimus...."

Several of Rodimus' team gasped, Red Alert gasping and Ironhide choking, optics going wide. Rodimus himself stared at Optimus in shock.

"H-how-?" choked the archer prime, finding his voice after a moment.

"From what we can tell he was attacked and offlined by the Decepticons....." stated Optimus, not wanting to say anymore.

Bumblebee looked over Rodimus' crew, turning away to regard his commanding officer sadly.

Rodimus looked away, still in shock, staring at the berth. Optimus looked up sadly, turning to Bumblebee and indicating the door. The yellow scout nodded and began to back away.

"Rodimus...we'll leave...we're really sorry for your loss," stated Optimus sincerely, ducking his head as he backed away.

"W-wait, Optimus!" called Rodimus, who looked up and quickly jumped to his feet, even though Red Alert absentmindedly told him to be careful, and crossed over to them.

Optimus froze optics slightly wide, going slightly tense. "

Thank you...both of you...for telling us....we are grateful...." smiled Rodimus, his expression really sad but sincere, resting a gentle servo on the other primes' shoulder.

Bumblebee smiled lightly at Optimus' expression, before suddenly jumping as both his and Optimus' commlinks went off.

Optimus also jumped, causing Rodimus' hand to quickly slide off, before he turned his urgently turned his attention to the link. Bumblebee also activated his link.

"Prime, Jazz has just come out of the council room; they want us all in there."

"I see, t-thanks Ratchet, we'll be there as soon as possible...." Muttered Optimus, not looking at Rodimus. "Thanks Docbot..."

The quickly cut off their links.

"Please excuse us..." said Optimus, a small smile on his face.

Rodimus nodded, "Duty calls huh?"

Optimus nodded. "We'll see you soon...."

"Sure," said Rodimus. Optimus and Bumblebee quickly headed out the door, striding quickly out of the medbay and hot footing it back to the council room.

What were they going to say?

* * *

The decepticon ship was abuzz with activity, as many bots rushed to get away from the lower levels of the ship. Every now and again intense screaming could be heard, scaring the slag out of many of the scientists.

Many had left the lower bays surrounding the main containment chamber, to escape the noise.

One poor decepticon was not lucky enough to have that luxury.

Glit winced as Sari glared nastily at him, her hatred radiating from her small face.

"Please don't be like this," pleaded Glit, trying not to rub his audios.

She screwed up her noise at him before bellowing, her voice slightly hoarse, "NO SLAGGIN' WAY!! YOU KIDNAP ME! LOCK ME UP! AND NOW YOUR TRYING TO SAY DON'T SHOUT?!"

Glit laughed nervously, "Ummm...."

Sari glared at him and began to rant angrily.

Glit's faceplate heated up as she began to rant, as she threw in very colourful Cybertronian curse words. He silently wondered where she had learnt such language.

He nearly jumped out of his armour when he realised his commlink was going off. "Glit here!"

"Glit" Glit flinched as Megatron addressed him.

"Yes my lord?"

"Come outside, I want to consult with both you and Nightlife regarding the technorganic."

"Yes Sir," confirmed Glit, sending a nervous look at Sari. She didn't appear to respond as she continued to rant.

As he turned and left, she snarled even louder in her outrage.

Stepping out of the bay and into the monitoring room, he came face to face with Megatron, Nightlife and a rather nervous looking youngling assistant.

The said assistant was staring in fear at the monitor that had Sari's raging face in it.

Nightlife sneered in greeting, before shoving the youngling forward to take over. Glit smiled weakly at the young bot, who nearly whimpered as he went past, before Nightlife's loud cough drew his attention.

Megatron stared expectantly, making him blanch, "Well? Is she ready?"

"Not yet, my lord," sighed Glit, "I'm still conducting the relevant tests... They are nearly finished..."

"It's not good enough," growled Megatron threateningly, making Glit step back, "The plan must be enforced in the next few cycles and the ship must be fully operational. It cannot wait. She must be ready to power this warship!"

"I know, My Lord, but these tests need to be done....and-"

"And?"

"And...We need to figure out the solution to our problem...." Glit admitted nervously, looking over at Nightlife, which did not help because he grinned mercilessly at him.

"What problem?!" demanded the decepticon leader viciously, rising to his full height making him look like someone's worst nightmare.

"My Lord, the medic means they can't figure out why she doesn't emit the same high powered energy as she has done previously," snorted Nightlife, sending an infuriating smirk Glit's way.

This earned an amused raised optic ridge from Megatron, who turned to his attention to the jackal scientist.

"Oh? Does that mean you have a solution, Nightlife?"

"Indeed my Lord I do," chuckled Nightlife, ignoring Glit' surprised expression, "I would like your permission to conduct a little experiment with her."

"Nightlife-!"

"That depends," cut in Megatron, cutting off Glit's objection, "Why?"

"I have a suspicion sir, that her energy levels are controlled by her emotions. Each time she has caused a mass energy spike, she has been angrily screaming. I believe the higher her emotional state, the more energy we can collect from her."

"I see," said Megatron, "How do you propose to test your theory Nightlife?"

"With this my lord," smiled Nightlife, presented a strange small red and white cloth to him, clearly of earth origin.

Glit's optics widened, "Nightlife, what did you do?!"

Megatron smirked nastily, quite clearly amused, "Do it, and do not fail me, Nightlife."

"Of course not my lord," Nightlife bowed and then entered the room.

The young assistant looked like a deer caught in the headlights, as he stared between Nightlife and Sari quickly.

"Get out," snorted Nightlife, something that the assistant didn't need to be told once as he fled the room as fast as his wheels could carry him. Nightlife sniggered, before turning his attention to Sari, who had stopped ranting and now glared at him.

"Hello technorganic," smirked Nightlife, striding closer to the glass.

Sari glared, "Oh great, it's you. What the slag do you want?!"

"I wanted to see you," pouted Nightlife, "I liked speaking to my captives; talking to them makes our experiments even more interesting."

Sari's face darkened hatefully, amusing Nightlife to no end as he laughed out right. "You don't seem to take jokes well my dear."

"Slag off," snapped Sari, clearly disliking the bot.

He smiled, "In fact, I came to show you something." She stared suspiciously at him, optics going narrow.

"I think you'll like it," smirked Nightlife, his cables retracting from his back and going to pull the item out, "I know I do......"

Sari stared in confusion when Nightlife's cable pulled out a white and red cloth from a storage unit on his back, a sense of familiarity accompanying it.

She had no idea what it was or why it looked so familiar.....

"Oh, don't you recognise this, my dear?" asked Nightlife, false innocence in his voice, "Well, let me show you...."

The cables separated lightly, pulling the cloth into its true shape, revealing that it was a white coat, ripped and torn in several places especially at the back, and covered in a red that looked like blood.....

Sari shivered suddenly, a cold feeling dropping down her spine as she made a harsh realisation. "W-wha-?!"

"Recognise it, little technorganic?" asked Nightlife, pointing to the ripped coat above him, staring at Sari intently.

"N-no! D-dad...?! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?!" she screamed, eyes filling up as she stared in horror at her father's coat, the same he had been wearing the morning she was kidnapped.

Nightlife smirked, "Oh I had much fun with him. I gained great satisfaction at kicking and throwing him across the room, listening to the cracks as he hit the walls.....oh my so much organic blood...it was so much fun.....crushing the life from him was the highlight....."

He smirked as Sari began to rapidly shake her head, clearing not wanting to believe him, even in the face of such proof.

"No...No...NO!!" Sari burst into angered and distressed tears, she thrashed in her restraints, which held her fast. Her optics began to glow intensely, going from blue to pure white, the air in the room becoming thick with raw power.

"I hate you!! How dare you!! MY DAD! MY DAD!!"

Nightlife laughed at her distress, watching as her restraints absorbed the energy she gave off, and waved the coat in her face.

She shrieked again, which caused another pulse of energy, making him laugh harder.

"Oh my dear, I love seeing you like this....."He rubbed his chest plate, his air vents trying to cope with the laughter, "Well I must be off. Seeya little one..."

He turned on his heel, ignoring her hateful shouts as he left, re-entering the monitoring room where Megatron and Glit stood waiting.

Bots rushed about the room, checking monitors and calling out in concern and amusement.

Glit was staring at him in horror, while Megatron looked very happy.

"My Lord," bowed Nightlife, smiling.

"Well Nightlife, it seems you are right...." smirked Megatron, turning to a frightened assistant, who stood next to him. Nightlife stared at him expectantly.

"T-the technorganic is giving off energy readings that are o-off the chart...." he stammered, eyeing the senior Decepticons nervously, "J-just like you theorised Nightlife, sir...The evidence shows-!!"

"Her emotions are the key to her energy levels..." finished Nightlife, a smug smile spreading across his features, "The higher the emotion, the more energy she releases!"

Megatron turned to some more scientists; all gathered around a console, "Did you collect the relevant energy from this outburst?"

"Y-yes sir! Combining it with what we gathered earlier, we have enough energy to get Tartarus moving!"

"Excellent," said Megatron, obviously pleased, "You have done me well Nightlife..."

"I live to please sir..." bowed Nightlife to the decepticon leader.

"May I ask you a question?" asked a quiet voice.

Nightlife and Megatron turned, finding Glit staring at a monitor of the room, staring at the distressed femme intently, his face away from them, "How do you intend to keep her in this state? She will calm down eventually....that means her energy will go down...."

Megatron glared at the decepticon medic, not liking his tone, optics narrowing.

"Oh, we have some ideas, medic," sneered Nightlife, oblivious to his leader's darkening expression, "Several that can help us use her to power the ship! We can start working on them now!"

"Why do you sound so concerned Glit?" asked Megatron, crossing over to the shorter medic, his expression harsh and unforgiving.

Glit looked up in fright, and swallowed harshly, "N-no reason sir! I-i was just curious-!!"

Megatron grabbed the medic's wrist sharply and squeezed, making Glit gasp in pain as several sensitive wires were crushed. Several scientists winced while some quietly laughed.

"If I didn't know any better, I'd think you were sympathetic to the Autobots little technorganic pet.....That would be a pity if you were to turn a traitor, Glit...."

Glit cried out in pain, trembling, "N-no my lord...I- I was just asking so I could make the necessary modifications while monitoring her-!!"

"For your sake I hope so, Glit," sneered Megatron as he let his wrist go, which made Glit jump back to cradle his wrist, "Now go back to you duty. Monitor the technorganic. I have important matter s to discuss with Nightlife....."

Glit nodded and quickly headed back into the containment rooming, ignoring Nightlife's chuckle of amusement at his expense.

His wrist slaggin' hurt...but he could repair it later....

As the door swished open and he entered the room, he became focused on Sari, who had stopped screaming a moment ago and was now simply sobbing bitterly in her restraints; she made no sign to indicate if she knew he had returned.

A sad expression crossed his face as he stared at the girl, before he looked up at the security camera with a frown. He turned back to her and sighed, his wrist forgotten for the moment.

_Poor femme..._he thought sadly, his optics reflecting that_....and if I know Nightlife, it only gets worse from here....._

* * *

At the Sigma-4 outpost, it was relatively quiet.

This outpost was about two solar systems away from Cybertron, near an uninhabited planet rich in materials that could be used on Cybertron. It was mostly there just to protect the workers there and to keep an optic out for any possible decepticon activity.

At least, that was what a youngling had been told when was sent to work there. He somehow didn't really feel like an Autobot officer, checking off materials in a store room with an older grizzlier bot.

He sighed in annoyance. At times he really wished for a little more excitement.

Now if he had had creators, they probably would have warned him to watch what he wished for, but sadly he did not.

A few moments later, another young officer burst into the room, scaring both himself and his commanding officer, squealing about a warship that could be seen outside.

Naturally, alarmed and slightly curious, he and his commander had followed the bot outside and, lo and behold, there it was.

A large warship, one that he did not recognise. It was dark, not black but close, with large energy cannons affixed below the ship's underbelly and small cannons above the engines.

His commanding officer, however, did not share that lack of experience and cursed colourfully before declaring it was a decepticon one.

He was about to ask him a question, when the large ship's lower cannons retracted from the base of the ship, before merging together into a what looked like a large ray.

A bright white flash occurred at the tip of the ray, as more power travelling down long cables to get there.

A second flash happened a few seconds later, and the whole base was consumed; the younger bot being knocked down by frighteningly powerful shockwaves.

Loud roars and crashes occurred and the bot felt like a hundred tonnes of metal had fallen on him and his audios were ringing.

Soon, once the ringing sensation had disappeared from his audios, did the bot open his optics.

He was covered in lots of metal, from what he wasn't sure. With great difficulty, he pushed all the debris off of him, growling in annoyance as it stripped his paintjob.

As he broke through to the surface, he looked around. The sight of the base after the attack quickly caused him to shut up, optics going huge.

It had been nearly completely obliterated.

Few of the previous structures that had been there a minute ago stood and what was left was in ruins. Even the warehouse behind him had been ruined when the just the shockwaves hit.

His fuel lines ran cold when he realised he had been lucky to get out of it as he was.

He quickly looked up to the sky in panic. The ship responsible for the devastation was long gone.

A sound occurred behind him, causing him to whip around.

His commanding officer struggled his way out of the debris, his paintjob also ruined and his right arm damaged. He was holding onto the other younger bot, who was unconscious and had several shards of metal and glass buried into him.

Their optics met and the young bot finally spoke.

"....Slag."

* * *

Optimus steeled himself as he entered the council chamber; the others close by his side.

He had just returned with Bumblebee from the medbay to find the team waiting nervously with Jazz, who apparently hadn't said a word about the meeting. Looking at his face and judging from Prowl's concerned reaction, Optimus knew whatever had been said hadn't been good.

He looked over the room, noticing many bots he recognised occupying seat on the council. Alpha Trion the civil union guild's leader, Perceptor the Head of the Science department, Cliffjumper the now official head of Intelligence service...and now many more bots he didn't recognise.

Looking back down, he caught sight of Sentinel Prime sneering at him, the jettwins behind him looking grim.

He noticed Jazz walk past him to stand with Sentinel, although he didn't seem to want to. Optimus felt rather sorry for him.

He sent a quick look over his nervous team, who all fidgeted, before inhaling sharply and looking up to Ultra Magnus, who occupied the highest chair of the council.

The Magnus looked down at him, his face stern. When he met optics with the younger bot, the expression briefly faltered to sympathy, before becoming determined again a moment later.

"Optimus Prime," he started, voice echoing in the chamber, "We have discussed the matter that your mission presented to us, the decepticon activity on earth, the discovery of Hotshot's body on earth......the kidnap of the technorganic Sari Sumdac....and your request to find her......"

He trailed off, making Optimus nervous.

"We can understand the severity of the situation and what could happen to the young femme in Decepticon hands...."

Optimus felt his fuel line clutch in fear, and he could tell by the noises behind him that the others shared his feelings. _Oh Primus no...._

"....But the council feels that we cannot interfere with the situation with such limited resources and manpower; I'm sorry Optimus Prime."

Optimus felt his spark sink, and he knew Bumblebee would explode in fury, so he went to beg the council to reconsider, the others trying to contain the angry bee.

Suddenly, the door to the council chamber burst open and a young blue yellow and white Intel bot sped into the room, despite guards' shouts for him to leave immediately.

He crashed into Bulkhead and fell flat on the floor with a cry.

"Cliffjumper Prime sir!!!"

Every bot in the room stared in surprise, Cliffjumper rising to his feet.

"Zetca! You know the council cannot be disturbed unless in an emergency!"

"But Sir that is why I'm here!" cried Zetca, after being helped up by Bumblebee and Ratchet, arms waving in panicked excitement, "The Outpost Sigma-4 has been destroyed by a decepticon warship!!!"

Several horrified gasps were heard, many rising from their seat to stare down at the younger bot.

Perceptor had been among them and spoke, "WhEn DiD tHiS hApPeN?"

"A cycle ago," gasped Zetca, trying to slow down and let his fans kick in, "T-they just managed to get through to us! There are few survivors that are wounded and stranded sir!"

"Are you sure it was a decepticon ship?" asked Ultra Magnus, who stared down at him intently.

The blue and white bot nodded furiously, "We have on sight confirmation from the survivors' sir!"

The young bot looked like he might fall down in exhaustion.

Perceptor turned from him to Ultra Magnus, "We MuSt SeCuRe ThE oUtPoSt DuE tO iTs HiGh VaLuE; wE nEeD tHe SuPpLiEs FrOm ThErE."

"And we need to find out more about this ship, Magnus!" called Alpha Trion, who stared intently at him.

Ultra Magnus nodded, "Indeed we do; this matter is most serious..."

He turned to look down at the Elite Guard, "Sentinel Prime, you and your team are to secure the Outpost and take agent Blurr with you; bring back all the supplies, equipment and survivors. All of them are important for Cybertron's future..."

"Yes Ultra Magnus," saluted Sentinel, although he showed no sign of happiness at this mission. Jazz and the twins saluted in suit, looking concerned at both the turn of events, and the other team that had been ignored since the news broke out.

Optimus Prime stared up at the Magnus, hoping......

He was rewarded when Ultra Magnus looked back down to his level, "Optimus Prime, in light of the news, I have a new mission for you and your team. I want you to investigate the appearance of this new warship."

This attracted all their attentions. Sentinel face was set in silent fury which looked almost comical to them, and he looked like he wanted to object, when Ultra Magnus cut him off, "It cannot be a coincidence that this new ship appears after the Decepticons have been to earth. If you follow this lead....you may find something else...."

Many of the council made approving nods. He stared at Optimus prime, nodding in silent approval.

"Thank you sir..." nodded Optimus respectfully, the other following in suit.

Ultra Magnus then turned to Sentinel Prime, "Any objections?"

Sentinel looked very angry, but had no power to disagree with the Magnus; he spoke through clenched dentals, "No sir..."

"Good. Now you all have your missions. Best of luck, to all of you...."

Prime wasn't listening anymore, neither were any of his team. They were now focused on their mission: Find the Decepticons and find Sari.....

* * *

**Katfreak: Phew!!! Done! That was long! Lol. WHY AM I SOO EVIIIIL?! No clue; I enjoy it I think....**

**Hey I threw in some of my OCs! Some don't have relevance in ****this**** story or don't really belong there *cough*Zetca*cough*buuuuttt...*shrug* who is the pink and white bot? I have drawn him before over on DEV.... **

**I hope you enjoyed guys! Please review! **


	5. Info Influx

**Power Source: Chap Four: Info Influx**

**Katfreak: Hi guys! Sorry it's been so long since I put another chapter up! I have been busy here at Uni and part of this story was rather hard for me to write up! I have finally got this written up though for your viewing pleasure! Please enjoy! I don't own TFA!**

* * *

Glit blinked up, staring up at the slender figure contained in the glowing glass chamber.

Sari's eyes were closed, her small face hung down with her ruby hair hanging limply off her shoulders; her face was set into a small troubled frown.

Glit mirrored her frown, although his was much more frustrated.

"Slaggit Nightlife....." he grunted miserably, remembering how Nightlife had swaggered into the lab earlier to implement his solution.

Nightlife had created a program that would hack into Sari's processor and force her into a never ending nightmare....

What he had programmed into it Glit wasn't sure but whatever is was clearly upsetting her; her energy waves she was giving out were rivalling what she had done several cycles earlier.

He looked up again and saw Sari's face slowly screwed up in what looked like pain and she let out a small whimper.

Glit didn't like this, it was going too far, but knew he couldn't do anything.

He clenched his servo, "I...I'm sorry......"

* * *

"EEEKKK!!!"

A small brown bot fled the rage of the larger bots in the bar; perhaps he shouldn't have given them that info without warning them about the trap.....

Rattletrap swerved around the corner and flattened himself against the wall, watching as the shadows of the bigger bots charged past in an infuriated stampede.

Once it settled down and the sounds quietened down, Rattletrap let out a highly relieved breath and slid down the side of the building.

_Made it! _

However, his relief was short lived when he heard a sound down a nearby ally.

He shot to his feet and went to dash down another ally when a blast of pink energy sent him flying into the opposing wall. He struggled and flailed with a shriek of pure panic.

_OH SLAG!! _

"Remember me, Rattletrap?" growled a familiar voice from his right.

Turning, he saw a very familiar red and white medic, his arm extended and pulsating the bright pink energy. He stared briefly before fully recognising him, causing his fans to whirr to life in tension.

"Eh, heh heh....what's up man?"

"Oh nothing, just a slagging lot!" snapped Ratchet, clearly not in a good mood.

"O-h I'm sorry to hear that," appeased Rattletrap, trying to look sympathetic, "W-what can I do you for?"

"I want info on all the decepticon activity you know about on Cybertron," growled Ratchet, optics set harshly on the rat-bot.

"H-hey I don't-!!"

"And if you attempt to pull off the slag you did before, I may not have my organic partner her but I can set my ninja-bot friend on you!" interrupted Ratchet.

Rattletrap's optics widened, "What Ninja-bot-?!"

"Me" said a voice right into his audios.

Rattletrap yelped in fright when he turned to see a black and gold bot that hadn't been there a few seconds ago, leaning very closely over at him.

"H-hey! I don't know nothing man! I mean it!" wailed the ratbot, arms failing around in panic.

Loud sounds of other bots coming down the alley as two more bots blended out of the darkness behind Prowl and Ratchet, a large bulbous green bot, who was looking back down the alley, and a smaller well built red and blue bot, who had his arms crossed disapprovingly.

"That's enough," said Optimus with a sigh, "He probably won't tell you anything if you rough-house him like that."

"But Optimus-!"

"Ratchet," cut off Optimus, "Please put him down."

The medic growled in anger but did as he was told, both him and Prowl backing off.

Rattletrap dropped to the floor with a loud clang as the magnetic energy disappeared, causing him to wince and clutch his aft, "Ow....."

Optimus crossed over, reaching a hand down to the info-dealer. "My name is Optimus Prime. I'm sorry about the, um, treatment before; but we've been told that you can provide information from the underground. We need to know what ever you can tell us about any Decepticon movement on Cybertron."

Rattletrap stared at his extended hand for a moment, before looking back up.

The Prime looked perfectly sincere and wasn't as mean-looking as the scowling medibot and ninjabot behind him. Rattletrap felt a little better around him.

He clasped Optimus' hand and then nodded as he was pulled to his feet, "O-ok...I can help ya...sort of..."

"What's that supposed to mean?!" growled Ratchet.

Rattletrap flinched and Optimus sternly looked over at Ratchet. "Please continue..."

"Listen folks, I got no idea of any sort of decepticon activity that you seem to be looking for..."

Rattletrap shivered at the cold looks he got, "But I can recommend a guy that may have the info you're looking for! His name's Swindle!"

"He's back on Cybertron?!" Optimus' optics widened something that caused the other to look at each other.

"You met him?" asked Rattletrap.

"Y-yeah..." nodded Optimus, "Our paths have crossed...."

"Where is he?" asked Prowl, looking potently over at the ratbot, which creeped him out a bit.

"Err; he is the pleasure district of Iacon...at Mechai Mirage. Plenty of bars, hangouts and-"

"Yes we know what you're talking about," grunted Ratchet, cutting him off, much to poor Optimus' relief.

"Thank you for your help," stammered Optimus, faceplate rather red.

Rattletrap smiled shyly, "Eh, looks like you guys sorta needed it; I'm glad to help...D-do you mind if I go now?"

Optimus smiled nodding, Ratchet and prowl frowning in the background. Rattletrap was about to go when the Bulkhead finally spoke, still looking down the alley.

"Hey guys, has anyone seen Bumblebee?"

Rattletrap froze and the other autobot's looked over in confusion.

"I thought he was behind us," admitted Optimus with a frown, looking around.

A sudden sound of rushing headed up the alley, revealing the said yellow speedster, who was smiling wickedly. "Hey guys, you got what we needed?"

"Yeah...?"

"Kid, where the frag were you?" asked Ratchet, crossing over to the smaller bot and whacking him on the back of the processor.

Optimus and Prowl both raised expectant optic ridges at Bumblebee, while Bulkhead stared at his companion.

Bumblebee merely grinned at him and then over at Rattletrap, who didn't trust that gleam in the yellow bot's optics.

Loud thundering came down the alley behind Bumblebee and several angry bots came into view.

"Hey kid where the frag-?!" started the leader before looking over and glaring at Rattletrap; who looked frightened in the next moment, "YOU!!!!"

Rattletrap screamed and bolted down the alley, soon followed by several murderous and angry bots.

They shoved past the rather stunned Autobots and disappeared in a thunderous stampede.

All optics widened in shock, making the silence echo, before they turned to the smirking yellow speedster.

"Little buddy...?"

Bumblebee grinned in response.

"Bumblebee! Why did you do that?!" said Optimus, looking down disproving shock at the younger bot, "He helped us out!"

Bumblebee simply raised an optic ridge at Optimus, "Boss bot, Ratchet said that this guy couldn't be trusted to tell the truth!"

"He's right Prime," nodded Ratchet in agreement, which made Optimus sigh in annoyance.

"Unbelievable...."

"What if he did tell the truth this time Bumblebee?" asked Prowl sternly, "How can you justify that?"

Bumblebee shrugged, "If he did, then it's an unfortunate mistake. If he didn't then it serves him right!"

Optimus face palmed, mumbling something quite inaudible. Ratchet snorted and Prowl shook his head.

Bulkhead leaned over and, after prodding the bumbler, asked, "Mechai Mirage?"

That caught everyone attention, making Optimus especially blush hard. "Does such a place exist?"asked Optimus.

"I have heard of it," confirmed Prowl, making everyone gap at him, "What? I have heard of mechas and femme going there! Slag Jazz has been there once!"

Prime quickly coughed, cutting off Bumblebee and Bulkhead immediate questions, before speaking, "Regardless of that, we still need to get there. If Swindle is there we have to hurry."

"And we have to cover our Autobot symbols," interjected Ratchet, arms folding, "Autobots aren't always welcome in some places..."

"Then how the spark are we gonna get in there?" asked Bumblebee.

"Um...I think I could help there..." said Bulkhead shyly, looking slightly apprehensive as he drew something out of his storage compartment for their inspection.

Many optics widened, "Bulkhead...how long have you been keeping that there?"

"Since we left earth...." mumbled Bulkhead, fiddling with the brushes and paint in his servos, "I wanted to save them for an emergency..."

"Well, this call for it...Thank you...."

"Nice save big guy..."

* * *

Swindle laughed, lounging in his seat, before smirking at his latest customer, "Well you sure do know how to pick 'em. I commend your choice; she is a real pretty investment. Aren't you Windancer?"

The young blue femme whimpered next to him, her hands bound by stasis cuffs, before looking over in fear at the rusty old bot that leered over at her.

"I got to admit you get some fine wares Swindle...." smirked the older bot, still watching the panicked femme.

Swindle laughed, "I know I know, but flattery won't get you the femme; I'm gonna need the credits upfront before I hand her over though..."

Swindle grasped his energon and started to drink some, oblivious to the bots being shoved out of the way behind him.

"Well Swindle, it looks like you haven't changed at all."

That caused swindle to nearly spit out his energon and whip around, the other of his party looking up at the new speaker.

Optimus loomed over the arms dealer with his arms crossed. His Autobot symbol was now missing, Swindle noted somewhat distractedly. The other Autobots stood behind him, looking equally as slagged off.

Swindle smiled charmingly at them, "Well well, Optimus Prime! What do I owe the pleasure of your visit?"

Several of the bots that had crowded Swindle's table shifted angrily at the interruption, glaring at the Autobots, many of whom looked just as surly back.

"We need a word with you, and its better if we take this outside..." started Optimus.

Swindle snorted and cut him off, "Do you now? Well that's a first! No Autobot usually comes to me for wares!"

The Autobots flinched as Swindle gave them away, causing many bots to growl and grumble behind them.

Optimus glared at the arms dealer, who shrugged mockingly in response, "Opps? Was that meant to be a secret?"

"Your Autobots?" growled the bot swindle had been speaking to, rising from his seat and crossing over to them.

"So what if we are, what's it got to do with you?" growled Ratchet.

The other bots optics narrowed and he shoved the medic, "Weld it, slagger!"

"Hey!"

"Don't you push Ratchet!" roared Bulkhead in outrage before shoving the other bot away from the medic, who crashed into another bot behind him.

Several bots roared and jumped poor Bulkhead, this being the sign that started a rather large bar brawl.

Optimus fended off a bots punching servo, whipping around to see Swindle had disappeared in the confusion.

Optimus groaned, ducking an energy blast.

This was gonna be a long cycle.

* * *

Swindle sniggered cheerfully as he left out the back door of Mechai Mirage, a bag of credits clench in his servo before he tossed it into his transwarp compartment.

"I got love the feel of a bar fight and business deal!" laughed the arms dealer.

".....Perhaps you should save your bragging for once you've got away, Swindle."

Swindle's optics widened as Prowl melted out of the shadows before him, shruiken clenched in folded servos.

"How did you-?"

"I didn't want to be distracted from my main target," shrugged the ebony ninja.

"Well now! I'm popular!" cheered Swindle, "But I'm afraid you're gonna have to work much harder to catch me!"

Swindle quickly raised his mount laser gun and fired at the ninjabot and throw some sort of smog device at him.

Swindle smirked at Prowl's shout and turned to dash away down the opposite direction, only to have a sparking stinger thrust into his face.

Blinking, he saw a rather slagged off Bumblebee before him, blocking his escape route.

"Well, tonight doesn't seem to be my night does it?"

Bumblebee glared frostily, ignoring him, calling out over Swindle's shoulder, "Hey Prowl, you ok?"

Swindle turned slightly as a rather annoyed Prowl appeared behind him, "I'm fine."

"Good 'cause Jazz would kill me if you got hurt!"

Prowl's expression looked amusingly embarrassed, but whatever he was about to say in protest was cut off by a shout.

"Did you both get the glitch?!" growled a really slagged off Ratchet, who was being followed by Bulkhead. Both were damaged and dented, Bulkhead especially. Ratchet was furious and Bulkhead looked cross.

"We did," assured Prowl, looking over in concern at his companions.

Swindle, on the other hand, laughed, "Whoa! They did a number on you didn't they!"

"And whose fault was that?!" growled Ratchet venomously, clearly entertaining the idea of dismantling the arms dealer.

"Easy Docbot," muttered Bulkhead, trying to calm the cranky medic, "We still need him..."

"What the slag could you need me for?" asked Swindle deviously curious, already forming possible ways of getting credits, "Other then putting me in the stockade?"

"As tempting as that sounds," said Prowl, "We need any information you may have on recent decepticon activity relating to a new warship."

Swindle stared at the ninjabot bot for a moment, before an infuriating smile appeared; the Autobots knew that was not a good sign.

Swindle slid away from Bumblebee, opting to lean against a wall, his smirk making the Autobots tense.

He sniggered in amusement, causing Bumblebee to be the first to snap. "Well, do you know anything about this ship or not?!"

Swindle raised an optic ridge at him, making Bumblebee snarl, only Bulkhead keeping a firm servo on his shoulder stopping him from charging him.

Swindle decided to take pity on him, as a reward for his amusing behaviour, "Ship, ship, ship...? Oh! You must mean Tartarus! Am I right?"

The glares he received in response were priceless, and made him laugh.

"Weld it," snapped ratchet crossly, "What do you know about this ship already?!"

Swindle smiled back mockingly, sloping off the wall and wandering away from the disgruntled medic.

He briefly noticed Prowl was watching him closely, in case he tried to escape.

Swindle whipped around, waving a servo airily at them, "So, you wanna know about Tartarus? What makes you think I'd know anything about that ship? Anyway, how much would you be willingly to pay for it?"

He laughed out loud at the infuriated expressions he received in response, guffawing so hard he failed to notice a presence loom over him.

"What do you know Swindle?"

Swindle jumped and spun around, yelping as his shoulder was grasped rather tightly by a rather slagged off looking Optimus Prime.

The young prime was covered in several dents, part of his chest glass being cracked. And he looked supremely ticked.

"Whoa there! Take it easy-!"

"Now listen here," growled Optimus surprisingly coldly, "We are not in the mood for your games. We have had the worst few cycles ever and we don't need you to add to it! We would appreciate if you gave us a servo to help us; that way we won't hand you over to the Elite Guard for questioning..."

Swindle searched the young prime's optics for the bluff, his optics widening when he realised he wasn't kidding.

He nervously laughed, "Tartarus huh? What the frag do you want with that ship?"

"We have our reasons," stated the prime bluntly, nodding mildly to Ratchet, who had come over and started healing some of Optimus' damage.

Swindle stared for a moment before smirking suddenly, "...You know, I think I like you. You don't seem to be afraid to be rough to get what you want; not something I'd normally see in an Autobot."

He enjoyed the winces he received in response to this comment, before continuing, pulling away slightly cautiously form the Prime.

"So why not? Tartarus isn't a warship...or rather it wasn't at first..."

"What does that mean?" asked Bulkhead.

Swindle regarded the large green Autobot, "I mean it used to be a science vessel for the Decepticons, allowing them to create new technology during the war. It was meant to remain hidden and out of the way from Autobot knowledge. But recently it's made a comeback...its plans and orders changed."

"What is it planning?" asked Optimus intently.

Swindle shrugged, "I'm not sure."

He flipped off the disbelieving looks he received in exchange, "What? I didn't ask him."

"Whose him?" asked Prowl.

"An acquaintance of mine," smiled Swindle, "He has direct links to Tartarus. If you wanna know more your gonna have to ask him."

"Where is he?" asked Bumblebee, oblivious to the other growing discomfort.

"He works at the shuttle docks in the northern sector of Iacon," shrugged Swindle, a small smirk decorating his face.

"What's his name?" asked prime cautiously.

Swindle raised an optic, "The names Splash-Down. Nice mecha who pays on time and well for my wares..."

Swindle smiled fondly, laughing.

After a moment, several optics raised suspiously at the arms dealer, who stared back. "What?"

"This is usually the part where you start talking about pay, isn't it...?" asked Prime slowly.

Swindle smirked again, flashing sharp dentals, "Normally? Yes. But right now....?"

A loud roar occurred down the alley way, making the Autobots jump.

"Uh oh..." groaned Bumblebee, looking rather worried as several of the bots from the bar fight entered the alley, glaring intently at the Autobots.

"...'Fraid so," laughed Swindle, "I'll wave the fee this time 'cause you miiiight need to start running. Right. About. Now!"

He laughed as several bots charged at Prime's crew, making them jump back and making Optimus shout out, "Autobots, fall back!"

He waved them off as they were forced to grudgingly retreat, avoiding the angry boys that charged past him in the process of attempting to catch the fleeing bots.

As the thunderous stampede faded away, leaving swindle alone in the alley, he smirked wickedly.

"Good luck Autobots...Because you aren't likely to survive if you go after Splash-Down and his crew...they loathe Autobots...and ruthlessly deal with them..."

Swindle laughed in sadistic amusement, before turning to leave.

He froze at the sight of blood red optics gleaming out at him through the shadows.

"Hello there...?"

The bot stepped forward, and Swindle sighed relaxing at the familiar face, "Oh, it's only you..."

* * *

(Earlier).......

-Incoming transmission-

"Hey it's you. Been awhile."

–"Indeed it has old friend"-

"Its not often I get a call for work off you; something big must be going down."

–"Indeed there is. I need you to make contact with some bots for me and give them this."-

"A data pad? What gives? I'm not a courier bot."

–"I know, but you're the only one I can trust to get the job done! Please, I'll pay you what you want..."-

".....You don't owe me a thing. I need to pay my debt off; after all, you are the one that helped me upgrade all those stellar cycles ago..."

–"A-are you sure?"-

"Yeah I am...... Slag, I'm getting soft in my old age..."

–"Thank you..."-

"Hey who's the intended recipients?"

–"A small group of Autobots..."-

"Autobots...?"

–"Yes, and they are ones you are very familiar with; they are led by a one Optimus Prime..."-

* * *

**Katfreak: Done! Phew that was long and hard to get right! I have more cliffhangers!! LOL Sorry guys but it is needed to be done :D I hope this has been ok! Hey another shameless dumping of an OC which has no relevance in this story has occurred this chapter! LOL Please review and i'll do my best to get the next chap up as soon as possible! Seeya next time *wave***


	6. Delivery

**Power Source: Chapter Five: Delivery**

**Katfreak: Ok! This may be a long time coming (and I apologise for that) but i finally have this next chapter up! Please enjoy! I don't own TFA or many of the characters except my ocs! Enjoy!**

* * *

Anguished howls of agony filled the air, the scent of oil and energon punctuating it. Several laughs rang out as many crunches impacted into a dented metal.

After a moment, the impacts ceased and harsh agonised breathing echoed loudly, before a rather bored voice asked, "Boss? When are we gonna get this delivery through? I don't like waiting here for so long..."

"Easy there, my young Pierott; we just need to wait for the last delivery and then we'll be on our way."

Another gruffer voice snorted, "Good; the appeal torturing Autobots wears thin after awhile."

The boss laughed, "You're so impatient, Quake!" "

Well, the sooner the better!" interrupted a feminine voice, "The sooner we get back to the ship, the sooner I can see him again..."

"You're so obsessed with your mate," a disgusted Pierott answered, "Won't you ever stop?"

"And why won't you stop obsessing about protecting your pathetic little sister over there?" growled the lethal femme, indicating the quiet femme next to him.

The Pierott growled, opening his mouth to retort.

"Now, Now, settle down, you two! We don't want to fight amongst ourselves before we head back to Tartarus!" cut in the boss' smooth voice, causing aggravated growls. A howl of agony came from the whimpering Autobot on the floor as the Pierott lashed out again in frustration.

Suddenly a loud beeping brought all's attention to their boss as his commlink went off. He answered, "Hello? Oh Swindle..."

The group stared at him in boredom, before looking curious as a wide and wicked smile enveloped his features. "Oh i see...Well, you shouldn't have...I think we can handle that. Thanks again, babe..."

The commlink ended and silence reigned for a moment, before the boss began to laugh.

"Well?"asked the gruffer bot, "What's so funny?"

"That was Swindle..."

"We gathered that"

"..And he says that he had a group of annoying Autobots asking around about Tartarus."

"Hmph", snorted the femme, "What do they want with Tartarus?"

"Swindle doesn't know, but he's sent them here to us...want to give our guests a proper welcome?"

"That depends on what you mean, Boss..."

"You and your sister will greet our guests and bring them inside..."

The Pierott sighed, "Yes Sir..."

"Then what about this pile of scrap here?" asked the gruffer bot, nudging the Autobot on the floor. The boss looked down at the whimpering bot on the floor, who looked up in terror as he stood.

He stopped before the bot and smiled. "His time is up."

The bot screamed before being cut off as his chest plate and spark was crushed.

The leader smiled, removing his foot, before readdressing his team, "Let's prepare for our guests..."

* * *

"Yo, boss-bot, are you sure this is the right place?" asked Bumblebee, nervously eyeing the dark and eerie area of the warehouse district.

Optimus nodded, "If my memory serves me right, this is the place."

"Whoa, it seriously needs some cleaning," mused Bulkhead naively as he looked around and carefully avoided treading on the many rusty barrels littering the alley.

"Some courier bots don't care about cleanliness, kid," growled Ratchet, randomly pushing one barrel out the way, "They just wanna get the job done so they can get paid."

"Its still disgusting," said Prowl, who gracefully avoid the rusty barrels, eyeing them in disgust.

"I just wished Swindle had been more specific when he said where these Decepticons are," said Optimus suddenly, drawing all attentions to him, "Then we wouldn't have be so on edge..."

"It wouldn't be Swindle if he didn't frag with us, now would it?" asked Ratchet, raising an optic questioningly.

Optimus smiled weakly, "I guess not..."

"The sooner we find then and get the information out of them the better," mused Prowl.

"Yeah! And the sooner we can find Sari!" cheered Bumblebee, with an enthusiastic nod.

"That," nodded Prowl "and the fact that this place has too many ambush points for our safety."

"Not very comforting thought, Prowl," sighed Optimus, who seemed to tense at the news.

"Don't make this worse than it is, kid" grunted Ratchet.

"Sorry."

A commlink chimed through the air, emanating from the black ninja-bot, who quickly answered, "Jazz, i thought you were on that mission...? Oh i see...yes alright..."

He sighed and then turned to Optimus and said, "Excuse me, but may I?"

Optimus nodded, "Be careful, Prowl."

Prowl's mouth tightened into a frown of annoyance, "I know that; i can look after myself. You're just as bad as Jazz is ...Yes Jazz i know you heard that but-!"

Prowl quickly disappeared, taking the rest of the conversation away, leaving silence and slightly amused younglings in his wake.

Ratchet sighed loudly, drawing all's attention to him. "Ratchet?" asked the young Prime.

"I may have had a go at Prowl for what he said," started Ratchet, "But i do agree with him. I don't trust this area, Prime. Bad stories have come out of here."

"I know," nodded Optimus, "But we need to find these Decepticons first. If we didn't have to i wouldn't have us come here at all..."

"Well, i guess it can't be avoided, but still..."

"Look on the bright side, doc-bot," assured Bulkhead, "We're gonna get Sari back!"

Ratchet laughed quietly, "Yeah...i guess your right..."

"Well? What are we waiting for?" asked Bumblebee, who bounced lightly on his pedes, "Let's get looking for those Decepticons!" The young scout paused for a moment, "Whoa, I never thought I'd say that with any amount of passion!"

This caused an amused snigger and a collective pair of sighs from the older bots.

The mood made a sudden tense turn when Prowl leapt back down, looking intently down the alley with a shuriken drawn.

"Prowl, what's wrong?" asked Optimus urgently, startled by the speedy re-entrance.

"I told Jazz our current location," started the tense ninja without looking at his superior, "He warned me that in this area offlined and tortured shells of Autobots have been found recently. It's suspected decepticon activity."

"Frag!" gasped Ratchet, who lightly deployed his magnetic claws.

"Indeed; he warned us to be careful..." the ninja trailed off for a moment, "...And i sense something coming..."

All the Autobots jumped in surprise, with those who hadn't lightly deploying their weapons and following Prowl's gaze down the alley.

It was tense for a moment before the figure of a white and black femme melted out of this dark, her face turned down, like she was extremely nervous. A red Autobot symbol could be seen decorating her chassis.

This caused some to relax slightly, most notably Optimus, who straightened and politely called, "Excuse us, Miss, but you had startled us. Are you lost?"

The femme jerked lightly in response, staying eerily silent. Concerned entered everyone's face plate, except Prowl, who seemed to tense more.

Bumblebee broke the tension, calling out, "Hey, are you ok-?"

His question stopped in mid-sentence when the femme jerked and fell forward, another form blending out of the darkness behind her. This bot was a navy and pink mecha, who seemed to move gracefully from the shadows before reaching forward and snatching the fallen femme into his arms.

The Autobots didn't need to look at his chassis to tell he was a decepticon: the scorn filled red optics gave him away instantly.

"You!" shouted Optimus, getting into battle position again "Put her down now!"

The decepticon made a small noise of disgust before turning and fleeing down the alley, the unfortunate femme in tow.

"After him!" called Optimus, transforming and driving after him.

"But wait-!" called Prowl, whose shout was cut off as the others transformed and urgently followed after Optimus.

The Ninja bot cursed lightly under his breath before following in suit and speeding after his team.

Optimus roughly turned a corner, the others in tow, following him until they sped into a dark warehouse. The Autobots quickly transformed back into their alt-mode, looking around the best they could.

"Frag! He got away, boss-bot!"

"Where could he have gone?"

"I saw him turn into this building" started the young Prime, "So we couldn't have gone the wrong way-!"

"PRIME WATCH OUT!"

Optimus cried out as Prowl leapt forward and pulled him away a silvery explosion that came from his former spot; the force knocking them both over.

"Frag! Are you both ok?" called Ratchet, rushing over to them to check them over.

"Yeah, I'm fine...Prowl are you ok?" asked Optimus, who pushed himself away from Prowl, watching as the ninja-bot struggled to sit up. "Yes, I'm alright, Prime..."

"No for long you won't be."

The Autobots jerked as a spotlight flashed onto them, before rising defensively. Another spotlight appeared a few metres away on a platform, and the mecha they had been chasing stood there, the femme wilting in his arms. "So, you came."

"If you're looking for a fight, bring it! But put them femme down first!" shouted Bulkhead at him.

"Please let her go!" called Optimus, axe at the ready.

The mecha quirked an optic, "You mean her? Oh, you fools..."

"Why are we fools, you decepticreep?" growled Bumblebee angrily, glaring in frustration. The mecha smiled, "This is why."

The mecha lightly stroked the side of the femme's face plate, which she seemed to respond to, before sweeping her into a stance. Her white and black plating morphed during the sweep into similar navy and pink to that of the mecha. She straightened, holding servos with the mecha, and both stood in a pose reminiscent of a pair of circus performers. But that wasn't what hit the Autobots first.

"Hey! She's a decepticon!" cried Bumblebee, feeling like he had just been had, seeing a similar decepticon symbol on her chassis in place of the Autobot one.

"But, then that means-!" started Optimus in surprise.

"...This was a fraggin' trap!" finished Ratchet with a harsh glare.

"I must thank you though," sneered the Mecha, "Few bots would be so concerned with my sister!"

"Shut up!" ordered Bumblebee hotly, face-plate red.

"So you led us into a trap," said Optimus with a glare, "Now what do you want with us?"

"And who are your friends, in the shadows?" added Prowl, shuriken in hand as his glare swept the darkened room.

Many stared at him in confusion, before a smooth laugh made them all jump. "So we've been caught out so soon?"

"Boss..." the pink and navy mecha said, staring at a spot.

As the light flared to life, the spot was occupied by a sea foam green, blue and orange mecha, with a lazy knowing smirk on his face. On his left was a tall muscular mecha who was deep holly green and brown, a distinctly unimpressed look on his face. To the boss' right, a purple femme with black, white and red details smirked down mockingly at the Autobots.

"The black one's a ninja bot," snickered the femme in amusement, staring down at Prowl.

"No wonder we got caught out," snorted the bigger mecha.

"Swindle always seems to have interesting customers," smiled the team's boss with a laugh.

"Wait, Swindle?" asked Ratchet, looking over at Optimus.

"So, does that make you are the bots that know about Tartarus?" asked the Prime, tensing more as the bot leapt down from his spot, next to the pink and navy bots.

The bigger mecha and femme followed in suit. The leader turned and smiled, "Indeed we are. The name's Splash-Down," he mock-bowed, "What can I do for you?"

Optimus' optics narrowed at the mocking tone, ignoring the growl from Bumblebee.

"We need to find out more about your ship," said Optimus, "because we have reason to believe a decepticon called Nightlife has kidnapped a friend of ours-!"

"The techno-organic?" interrupted Splash-Down with a laugh, "Nightlife did say he'd taken somebody's disgusting pet; is it yours?"

"HEY!" roared Bulkhead, "She's not a pet!"

"You take that back!" snarled Bumblebee, who clenched his fists angrily.

The purple femme sneered mockingly, "Why the frag should we? It's nothing more than a disgusting techno-organic freak! Why should you care?"

"Weld it, you glitchy femme!" snarled Bumblebee back, who was pulled back by Ratchet, who muttered "Easy kid".

The Femme's expression darkened, "How dare you, you son of a-!"

"Easy Sharptail," placated Splash-Down. "Don't let the little fragger rile you," finished the bigger bot, glaring at the Autobots.

Sharptail gritted her fangs, before drawing a bladed weapon from her back, "Can we just destroy the fraggers now?"

"So impatient," laughed Splash-Down, before jumping down to the Autobots level, "Sorry, but you Autobots really shouldn't have come here, now it's your end."

"Like frag we will!" shouted Ratchet, who deployed his magnets.

"Yeah! We gotta save Sari!" shouted Bumblebee, assuming a battle position with the others.

Splash-Down sneered, "Sari? Do you mean the techno-organic?"

The silence confirmed him. "Well, I'm afraid you will never see the little freak again; not only will you offline here but she's as good a fragged regardless."

The Autobots tensed in shock. "What's that supposed to mean?" asked Optimus, clenching his axe.

Splash-Down ignored the Prime, continuing, "When she's useless they may as well melt the little slag into-!"

"SHUT UP!" snarled Bumblebee, who pushed past the Prime to charge at Splash-Down, fury blazing in azure optics. Splash-Down smirked as his own hand blades retracted and clashed with the furious yellow scout. Sharptail and the other cons leapt down, clearly aiming to aid their leader.

Suddenly a large piece of rubble came flying out at the four Decepticons, knocking them back and away; each landing with an irritated expression.

The biggest decepticon glared at the thrower, Bulkhead, who looked just as furious, "You challenging me, you bulbous glitch?"

"Bring it!" roared Bulkhead back as he charged forward after the bigger bot.

Prowl's shurikens clashed with Sharptail's blade, as the femme and mecha clashed, Sharptail cursing. "Think you can take me, Ninja-bot?" sneered Sharptail mockingly.

"I don't know," growled Prowl back, "Can you keep up with me?" She snarled in response.

Prowl tensed as he sensed himself about to be jumped, as the Pierotts went to leap onto his back, but both where knocked away by a flash of pink magnetism.

Prowl threw Sharptail back, just in time to watch Optimus and Ratchet charge after the twin Decepticons, before she came into view.

But Bumblebee didn't realise any of this as he lashed out violently at Splash-Down, who either blocked his frenzied blows or slipped out of his attack range.

"Hold still, you Deceptiscum!" howled Bumblebee furious, releasing a stinger bolt, while narrowly avoiding a large piece of metal being thrown behind him.

Splash-Down grinned at him, clearly side stepping the blast before releasing a ball of silvery liquid that exploded on contact. Bumblebee hissed in pain, clutching his damaged shoulder plate.

Splash-Down stared airily for a moment, "Why do you seem so worried about a disgusting technorganic? Why is it so special to you?"

Bumblebee growled angrily, "A decepticreep would never understand! Sari is special to us! She's our dear friend! And i'll do anything to get her back!"

A less smug, almost sad smile came to this response, "I guess a lowly package delivery captain wouldn't understand your useless Autobot compassion..."

Bumblebee growled and forced himself to stand, watching the decepticon cautiously, as another silvery ball of acidic liquid formed in his servos. "...But she is as good as dead."

Splash-Down failed to give the scout much time to react as the silver ball was thrown in his direction, before it exploded and smoke filled the air.

Splash-Down smirked victoriously, before an electric spark flew out of the smoke, hitting him directly in the chassis and he found himself face to face with a sparking stinger and a very irritated Autobot scout. "H-how-?"

"What the frag do you mean?" howled Bumblebee, his stinger sparking in response, "What are you creeps doing to her?"

Splash-Down stared stunned for a moment, but then laughed and gave him a crooked smile in response. "I'm not going to tell you," smirked the trapped deception, seeming to enjoy the look of fury on Bumblebee's faceplate, "Because you can't do anything anyway!"

Bumblebee yelped as he felt Splash-Down's hand slammed against his chassis before he was blown off by another silvery explosion. He crashed down, quickly forcing himself to stand and quickly defend himself when Splash-Down came crashing into him.

Bumblebee struggled to force the slightly bigger bot off of him. "Get the frag off me!"

Bumblebee quickly used Splash-Down's previous tactic against him, placing his stingers against his chassis and using a full electric blast to force the turquoise bot off.

The older bot cried out in shock as he hit against a rusty and leaky oil drum, the silvery liquid he used forming at his hands and hitting the floor.

Both looked horrified as electricity followed the liquid, before a large explosion engulfed the battery and the decepticon, the force of the explosion sending Bumblebee crashing into Optimus and sending sprays of fire across the area, causing mini explosions and fires in its wake.

"Frag!" cried Ratchet, avoiding a small burst of flame, "We have to get out of here, Prime!"

"Not happening!" shouted the male Pierott, aiming to rush the older medic.

"Ratchet!"

"Hey look out!" shrieked the biggest male decepticon before being swallowed by the fire, as the silent female Pierott was narrowly avoiding flame fragments that were raining down on her.

The femme made no sound of fright as she was consumed by the fire, disappearing fast. The male Pierott howled, "SISTER!"

He skidded to a halt, right in front of Ratchet before diving back into the fire after his sister.

Bumblebee stirred from his temporary stasiss, before looking around blinking and then shrieking, "Oh frag!"

"We need to find Prowl and Bulkhead!" coughed the Prime.

"But, Bossbot! We can't see! It's too much smoke!" coughed Bumblebee desperately, squinting through the smoke.

"He's right, Prime!"

"But we can't leave them!"

A loud crack was heard causing the trio to blink, before a large fragment of the ceiling fell. The three had nowhere to go; they were trapped.

"No-!"

"EEK!"

"Frag-!"

Suddenly, the fragment froze above them and a small path cleared.

Optimus whipped around, "Prowl!"

The black ninja bot stood near them, face desperately concentrating and making familiar signs of Processor-Over –Matter.

"Prime...! Ratchet...! Take...Bumblebee! Get... out now!" grunted Prowl, straining to maintain the process.

"But what about Bulkhead?" cried Bumblebee, "Where is he?"

"I...I told him to get out...that I'd go after you all..." nodded Prowl, "He's ...safe! Please...get out now!"

"Not without you!" Optimus shouted.

"He's right Prowl!" shouted Ratchet, "You can't make it like this!"

Prowl looked desperately at them, "I...I will not die! Not here! I have to come back! So please...don't worry! I'll be right behind you!"

"But-!"

"JUST GO!"

The three bots looked nervously at each other, before Ratchet and Bumblebee nodded and retreated.

Optimus stayed behind, looking very uncomfortable with the idea of leaving the black ninja bot behind.

Prowl weakly smiled, through his strain, "Prime...I'll be alright. Go."

Optimus twitched, looking away and clenching his fist, "Prowl, please make it out!"

The Prime nodded, and then retreated down the path in the fiery inferno.

Prowl smiled weakly before another fragment fell on top of what he was already holding, putting more weight and strain on the sleek ninja.

Flames cracked around him as he considered his position, the temperature rising to be unbearably hot. He twitched in pain as a trail of flame began to creep closer and closer.

He wasn't sure he could hold it for much longer...and he wasn't really that sure how far he could make it. The exit wasn't that far, he sensed, but the paths of flames were not helping him plan an escape route.

Prowl twitched; he would have to make a dash, as fast as he could.

Prowl tensed, the weight nearly unbearable as he prepared. He swallowed hard and then leapt forward, breaking his concentration, allowing the spot he and the others had previous occupied to be consumed by flame and fragments.

He cursed and coughed mildly as he landed on a flamed patch, before he leapt higher again aiming to reach the exit. He cried out as another mid-sized landed onto him mid-jump, sending him sprawling to the floor.

Prowl winced, snatching back his burnt servo. He gasped as he whipped round as a particularly large piece fell in and threatened to fall on top of him.

A twinge of pain in his leg made him realise he wouldn't be able to escape, as some rubble trapped a leg.

Prowl flinched, realising he could do nothing else, before bringing up his arms over his face in a futile attempt to protect himself.

_Its over! _

But Prowl was surprised when the flaming inferno did not crush him, but the biggest surprise came from the sound of a blaster came out of nowhere.

A loud snort occurred, and Prowl's senses span as he was yanked hard from the rubble and quickly dragged out.

It was a welcome feeling when the cooler air hit the heated armour and prowl hacked a few time before looking up desperately at his saviour.

He gasped in shock, "Lockdown?"

The bounty hunter stared down at the damaged ninja, looking very unimpressed. "You seem to attract all sorts of trouble, don't ya kid?"

"Shut up" Prowl growled in response, "But why did you save me? I don't understand..."

"Relax, kid," snorted Lockdown in amusement, "I got some business with you."

Prowl tensed visibly, causing an irritated sigh from Lockdown.

"Look, I just gotta give you something, that it, so don't look so worried."

"What is it? Who gave it to you?" asked Prowl, forcing himself to stand, with a cough.

"You should take it easy, kid, you ain't in good shape," pointed out the bounty hunter.

"Answer my questions! I need to know!"

"Fine," snorted Lockdown, waving a hand airily, "Just chill out. Here!"

He pulled a data-pad out of a spare compartment in his armour and offered it to Prowl. The ninja blinked in confusion, "What...? Who...?"

"Let's just say, kid, it'll help you find out about the ship Tartarus."

Prowled gasped, "How did you-?"

"My customer asked me to give that you; And why? I got no clue," snorted the bounty hunter in amusement.

Prowl blinked and took the small data-pad from the bounty hunter, staring at it.

"Well," stated Lockdown smoothly, stretching lightly and attracting Prowl's attention back to him, "that job is done, and now i've got one more..."

A loud rumble could be heard in the distance, signalling lots of people gathering nearby. "Looks like the Elite Guard got here then and they've mostly likely got your irritating friends too..." said Lockdown with a shrug, "Good."

The bounty hunter then turned around, heading back to the burning warehouse.

"Wait, where are you going?" asked Prowl.

Lockdown turned, "This is the second part of my job; to get those Decepticons out."

"What? But-?"

"Don't worry about it, kid, it's got nothing to do with you now. Get out of here before you keel over."

Lockdown turned away from the sputtering Prowl before heading back into the inferno, his skeletal form being swallowed by the flame. Prowl stared after him, feeling strangely chilled, before twitching and hacking again.

After recovering, he straightened and turned down the alley way, walking off. He turned a few allies, before he came to a large clearing filled with Elite Guards and the other members of his team.

They were dented, and sooty but good otherwise. An Elite Guard shouted at his approach, attracting both his attention and that of Optimus and the others.

"Prowl!" cried Optimus, staring at him in relief, coming over to him.

Prowl felt slightly ill as he approached before stopping. He offered the data-pad clenched in his hand to the prime, who took it in confusion.

"Prowl...?"

"Lockdown gave that to me," Stated Prowl bluntly, "And someone gave that to him to give to us about Tartarus."

The Prime blinked, "What-? But - Prowl?"

Prowl didn't hear anymore of Optimus' question before his world fell into black and he knew no more as his exhaustion settled in.

* * *

Deep red optics narrowed angrily at an unfortunate decepticon, who flinched at the steely glare of Megatron.

"What do you mean, we cannot carry on with our plans?" roared the furious leader, causing many bots in the room to jump in fear.

The young bot gulped, "M-my lord, o-our urgent delivery for the engine systems has failed to come in. U-until it arrives we cannot carry on moving the ship at its current speed without serious risk of damage to the engine."

Megatron growled, turning to Nightlife, "What happened to the engine systems in my absence?"

"My Lord," started the jackal decepticon gravely, "When the ship was being renovated into a warship, certain alterations had to be made. Some direct changes have been easier to do then others; this particular one had to be made over time..."

"I see," said Megatron optics narrow, "How long will this change require to rectify and how much time will we be put back by?"

"Not long, My Lord," acquiesced Nightlife, "It will be done in under a cycle once the cargo run carrying it arrives..."

"And just who is in charge of collecting these urgent supplies?" asked Megatron, a tone promising bad tidings.

"My Lord, his name is Splash-Down," started Nightlife, "But i can assure you, him and his team have never been late in a delivery before!"

Silence reigned for a moment, before Megatron spoke again, "Then you are suggesting he is being held up because?"

"F-Forgive my interference, my lord, but could he be waylaid by the Autobots?" asked the frightened and timid voice of the young messenger bot.

Megatron glared at the young bot before turning to Nightlife, "Could he?"

"I-i might be a possibility, My lord..."

A small sneer entered Megatron's face, "Then we may be able to use it to our advantage..."

Nightlife blinked, "My Lord...?" "The Autobots will never attack this ship, even if they know it exists. They do not have the firepower to attack or destroy this ship," smirked the dark dictator, relaxing back into his seat, " And, even if they do challenge us, they would not risk the life of the techno-organic, especially now she is infused with the power of the Allspark..."

Megatron laughed darkly, "Let them come, we will decimate their forces and leave Cybertron open to Decepticon take-over!"

Many Decepticons looked up to their Lord, some beginning to smile in pure confidence at their Lord's declaration. "Let us prepare!"

The bridge exploded into action as Decepticons rushed to their stations.

Nightlife watched the action, before whispering into the open commlink, "Worried, Medic?"

Silence greeted him for a moment before Glit responded, "...No."

Nightlife grinned wickedly, "Well, you should be..."

He laughed as Glit gasped over the commlink, before cutting off the link and casually leaving for his station in the science department.

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**Katfreak: Phew done! I hope this was ok guys! Please do comment and i will hopefully do better at the next chapter! Later!**


	7. Bridging

**Power Source: Chap 6: Bridging**

**Katfreak: Yo guys! Happy New Year and as a gift here is the next chapter of Power Source! Hopefully I shall be better with this story this year. Hopefully finishing it as well, depending on my spare time and my coursework/exams. I don't own TFA but I do own an OC mentioned! Thanx guys!**

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Ruins and destruction, that was all that was left of the place and that was depressing, mused Jazz; but what made it worse was Sentinel wouldn't shut up.

The White ninja desperately looked around to ignore the ranting of the pompous Prime.

"Why the frag did we have to go do this pitiful duty?" ranted Sentinel loudly, making the twins flinch beside him, "We are supposed to be the best of the best dealing with the security of Cybertron; and what are we doing? Relief work for low-ranked and washed up Autobots!"

Jazz felt a processor ache rising and a stab of pity for some of the survivors who were close enough to hear Sentinel's outburst.

A young bot with scrapped paint frowned unhappily at Sentinel, while a bigger and grizzlier bot growled and put his good arm around the younger bot as they walked past with a pair of medics wheeling another heavily damaged youngling to the ship.

Jazz looked after them sadly, before scratching his neck plate.

"What do you think, Jazz?" growled Sentinel, making him jump.

"Urm-!"

He looked over at the expectant and impatient Prime, whose optics narrowed slightly in Jazz' direction.

"Sentinel Prime, excuse me!" called a distant voice of another lower ranked Prime, distracting him, "We need your help over here before we finish getting everything aboard!"

Sentinel growled, glared at Jazz before stomping off with the twins in wake. Jazz shook his head, walking away and watching the scene as it unfolded.

"Are you ok?" chirped a half-excited voice, with slight feedback.

Jazz turned around, Blurr appearing behind him with a crooked smile.

The spy had been found half crushed into a cube in a broken incinerator, something Cliffjumper recognised to have used. He had been reconstructed, but still possessed some glitch troubles that they were desperately trying to repair.

Jazz sighed, "It's nothing, Blurr. I just feel a bit on edge here..."

He trailed off and went silent as a pair of Autobots carried a deceased shell passed them.

"ARE you a BIT twitchy here too?" asked Blurr, following Jazz's gaze.

"I guess..." sighed Jazz, "There' so much death here. I know it happens all the time as we're at war but still...this is too much..."

Blurr bounced lightly on his heels, but his face remained dead-panned. "It happens."

"Yeah I know...But to know that a decepticon warship did this much damage...its unreal..." Jazz stopped short, "I'm worried. Especially about the guys."

Blurr snorted, "PROWL!"

Jazz frowned, poking Blurr, who chirped in irritation. "Not just Prowl..." admitted Jazz, "But I am worried something bad is gonna happen soon..."

"You're just too TWITCHY!"

"Aren't you? I just hope we are gonna go soon; this place is awful," grunted Jazz.

"WE ARE NEARLY finished! We were just getting the last few bits onboard-!"

They were both cut off as the commlink chimed. They both answered. "Jazz here." "HELLLLO!"

"This be Jetfire; Sentinel Prime says we be going back now! We has fulfilled our mission!"

"Ok, we're on the way back" said Jazz, nodding to Blurr, who dashed ahead.

Jazz sighed, grateful as he started back himself.

_I hope we get back soon..._

_

* * *

_

"So you're saying that this data pad is very important for the decepticon ship Tartarus?" asked Ultra Magnus, seated beside Alpha Trion, staring at the scientists nearby.

Optimus stared grimly at Perceptor and Wheeljack from beside his team, uneasily watching the scientists examine the data pad. Prowl twitched next to him, quite uneasy.

It had been several cycles since the Elites rescued Optimus and his team from the fire at the warehouse in Northern sector of the shuttle docks, and even after it had been put out, nothing of Splash-Down and his team or Lockdown had been found in the ruins.

Prowl, after he had awakened and repaired, seemed quite tense about any mention of the bounty hunter. Just as the others seemed nervous at the mention of the decepticon team they fought.

Optimus nodded, "As far as we know."

"Ultra Magnus" said Perceptor, making everybody stare expectantly, "we have successfully broken through the encryption codes of this data pad; not much of an encryption either..."

"Perceptor, the info?" prodded Wheeljack gently, urging him to get to the point.

Perceptor rolled his optics, but carried on, servos gliding over the control panel as he brought up a schematic image of the ship.

"From what we understand from the schematics included in the data pad, Tartarus is not a complete warship just at this point."

"Not a complete ship?" echoed Ratchet incredulously, sharing a shocked looks with the others.

"But the ship is still pretty powerful enough to destroy," pointed out Alpha Trion.

"As that poor base found out!" Bulkhead chirped.

Ultra Magnus coughed, "Please continue, Perceptor."

Perceptor nodded, "The base is being converted into a warship from one that is more scientifically based. The base is powered by this particular section of the ship, which appears to be the most worked on system. By naturalising this section we can successfully disable the whole ship."

"That is good news," nodded Ultra Magnus, though his tone was dark.

"The ship, due to its recent renovations, has several weaker sections or unprotected ways in. But these are only apparent if you know where they are; as we do here."

"But what about Sari?" interrupted Bumblebee crossly, "Where is she being held?"

Optimus rolled his optic, tiredly swatting the scout.

Perceptor sighed, "The location of the technorganic is not listed here, but I can see several places that would be very likely to be the holding areas."

"Then that means we could save Sari?" asked Bulkhead. He frowned in confusion at the silence as everybody looked over at Ultra Magnus, whose face was set quite darkly.

"Ultra...?" implored Alpha Trion.

"You don't look very convinced, Sir," stated Optimus.

"This seems all too convenient...all this information yet we have little to go by on our mysterious benefactor...it could be a trap..."

"But, Ultra Magnus, Sir!" interrupted Prowl, "Lockdown would not give us a dud information, and I highly doubt he would trick us like this; he seemed too focused to have done that!"

"And what if this isn't a trap?" asked Bumblebee, "We could use this opportunity to rescue Sari from the 'Cons!"

"And we could use this information to strike a serious blow against the Decepticons..." noted Optimus.

Ultra Magnus' faceplate twisted darkly for a moment, "I am well aware of all that..."

The Magnus fell silent, making the air slightly tense.

"Ultra Magnus..." said Optimus, "Sir, do you think...?"

Alpha Trion stared at the young prime for a moment before turning to the Magnus, "It might be possible..."

Ultra Magnus turned to Perceptor, "Perceptor, would it be possible to plan a large scale attack against Tartarus?"

Perceptor and Wheeljack stared briefly for a moment before turning their analytical stares at the ship schematics, considering all the facts.

Sharing a nod, Perceptor nodded, "It's possible, sir."

A loud sound of a commlink chirped at Ultra Magnus, who answered with a frown. "Yes...I see...Send them in..."

The door opened with a loud swish as Sentinel entered the room, followed closely by Jazz, Blurr and the twins.

Jazz stared in concern over at his mate and his team.

Blurr giggled and whooshed over to Bumblebee with a grin, poking the scout several time before whooshing back with a grim expression.

"Welcome back, Sentinel Prime."

"Sir, we have all the salvageable material and information from Sigma-4," sniffed the Prime pompously.

"And the survivors," finished Jazz, earning a sour look from Sentinel, who then turned a glare on Optimus.

"Good..." nodded the Magnus.

"Sir, what has been going on since we left?" asked the blue Prime haughtily.

"With your return, Sentinel, we are considering a full scale attack on the Decepticon warship Tartarus."

"WHAT?" gasped Sentinel in horror.

Optimus and the others discreetly shared a snicker with Wheeljack, before looking over at the other elites, who looked surprised but considering.

"BUT SIR-!"

"Sentinel Prime," interrupted Ultra Magnus, rising to his feet, "This may be the only opportunity we have to destroy Tartarus, score a decisive victory against the Decepticons and to rescue the technorganic who helped our forces on Earth."

Sentinel spluttered at being brushed off, with the Magnus continuing over him, "The council may be against this plan, but I will allow full mobilisation for a full-scale attack."

"You shall have my support, Ultra," nodded Alpha Trion.

"Mine as well," nodded Perceptor, "This must be done."

Ultra Magnus nodded, "Thank you." He turned back to the two teams, "We must begin the preparation for the attack, so hurry and prepare yourselves. The attack will occur in a cycle. Dismissed."

The Magnus swept out of the room, closely followed by Alpha Trion, Perceptor and a horrified Sentinel.

Optimus and the others stared at each other for a moment, before sharing a strange look with the remaining Elites.

"Oh my..."

* * *

Half a cycle later, Optimus sat alone in the window of a corridor, watching over the busy activities as a below him prepared for a war. He gave a tired sigh, shaking his head.

"You alright, Prime?" asked Ratchet's voice as the medic appeared. He was closely followed by Bumblebee and Bulkhead, both looking at their leader in concern.

"I'm alright," assured Optimus, with a weak smile.

Seeing that nobody believed him, he sighed again, "I'm just surprised things have turned out like this...and I'm amazed about the data pad..."

"We all are," pointed out Bulkhead, with a comforting smile.

"But I'm also quite confused...a decepticon had to have supplied Lockdown with that data pad and all its info. But why...? We're the enemy, so why...?"

"Maybe," commented Prowl softly, making his presence known a bit further up the corridor and making the others jump, "This bot doesn't like what the 'cons have done...maybe they are trying to help us rescue her as a form of redemption...?"

"Redemption?" snorted Bumblebee, "I don't think any of the 'cons think what they're doing is wrong. What need to they have for redemption?"

Prowl sighed, looking away. Optimus sighed and Ratchet grunted, poking the scout.

Bumblebee pouted sourly, before looking distantly out the next window to Optimus. "I wonder if Sari is ok..."

* * *

She panted as she zoomed away, desperate to escape her persuaders.

_What the frag is going on here? Why is this happening? Why are they chasing me? Don't they want to help me? _

These confused thoughts echoed across Sari's mind, while she wheeled around a corner in an almost automatic manner.

_Why would they-? _

Sari wheeled around, skidding to a halt beside a statue in the park and panting harshly, heat and steam coming off her armour as she over-heated.

Sari knew that this couldn't keep happening otherwise she would...

Sari jerked before throwing herself to the side as the statue glowed pink and was ripped up and thrown in her direction.

Quickly throwing her energy orbs, she took off again, just in time to avoid the statue fragments raining down on her. As she dashed to get away, she skidded and ducked as a cleanly sliced tree was sent flying with the force of a bulldozer.

It crashed some way ahead, so she bolted over it and ran.

She twitched violently as her chest and spark began to throb painfully. _Slag! Not again! _

A high pitched whistling sound soon began creeping closer; Sari yelped in shock as she narrowly avoided a thrown weapon.

She reeled lightly as she struggled to regain her balance before a bright light consumed her vision and a painful blast hit her chassis. She shrieked painfully as she hit the floor and bounced a few times before stopping.

Wincing, she forced herself to sit up and looked as her pursuers gathered around her.

"W-why...?" whimpered the frightened technorganic as she stared up at frosty blue optics...

* * *

The air was charged with electric tension as the bots contained within the small ship aboard Steelhaven waited anxiously for their mission to begin.

Optimus sat edgy within his seat, while Prowl and Ratchet sat stone faced in their chairs.

Bulkhead and Bumblebee more openly nervous, with Bumblebee lightly twitching and faintly drumming his fingers on the control pad.

Bulkhead kept his servos to himself, tapping his fingers together. The large bot gulped loudly, looking up and around before looking away again.

He coughed, "Boss-bot?"

"Yes, Bulkhead?"

"Can we go over the plan again?"

Bumblebee nodded absently, slightly nervous.

Both Ninja and Medic turned to Optimus, dead-panned, before the young prime spoke.

"Bulkhead, the plan is that a fairly large Autobot fleet will attack the Decepticon warship Tartarus," Bulkhead nodded, "But that will be a ruse. Our ship will infiltrate Tartarus while their defences are busy."

"And?" implored Bumblebee.

"Once we board the ship, we will separate and each have one of 5 possible areas where Sari could be held, so we have limited time to find her. Also, we must destroy the power source for the ship and hopefully destroy the ship itself."

A silence greeted the end of his explanation, to which the Prime frowned.

"...Thanks Boss-bot..." nodded Bulkhead.

"It's ok..."

"We will be able to do this," assured Prowl, face set with conviction.

"He's right, kids. We'll be fine," stated Ratchet, voice surprisingly calm.

A loud comm. Echoed across the ship, making them all jump, before Optimus answered. "Optimus Prime?"

"Speaking."

"This is Captain Sparkzone of the ship Beta-3. Just checking in with you guys as your security escort; we'll be making sure you get to the enemy ship in one piece."

"Thank you..." sighed the young Prime, voice sounding uncertain, "But..."

"Don't worry, Prime," stated Sparkzone cheerfully, "We'll both get out this ok, alright?"

"I'll hold you to that, Captain."

The Femme laughed good-naturedly over the comm. "Get ready for immanent launch and Good luck to all of you."

"Thanks..."

"Thanks Femme."

"Be careful Captain..."

The link flicked off, as the Autobots stared ahead as the holds doors began to open.

"Attention all Autobots, you are about to launch. Good luck cats," chimed Jazz across the air waves.

Prowl's expression flickered briefly before becoming calm again.

"Get ready for launch, Autotbots," nodded Optimus, gripping the controls. The others sat back.

"Whatever happens, everyone, we will get Sari back and bring her home." The others nodded and settled back into their chairs.

"Of course, Boss-bot," nodded Bumblebee with a sudden burst of confidence.

The ship jerked hard as it launched out into the darkness of space, the crew tense as they flew away from Steelhaven and close to the waiting nearby Beta-3.

Optimus noted the many other ships dotted nearby, gulping lightly. Everything was riding on the success of this mission...

Optimus was distracted for a moment, absently asking, "Is everybody ready?"

"..."

"...? Everyone?"

"Um...boss-bot?"

"Yes, Bulkhead?"

"Have you seen the Tartarus yet?"

Optimus looked ahead more fully, optics suddenly going very wide as Ratchet swore nearby and Prowl's intake hitched.

Bumblebee gulped nervously, "Ugh...Boss-bot? That's one fraggin' big ship they got there-!"

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**Katfreak: WHHOOOO! Done! I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter! Now its starting to heat up the story isn't it? Let me know what you guys think! I'll see ya soon! Thanx guys! **


	8. Breaking In

**Power Source : Chapter 7 : Breaking In**

**Katfreak: Hey guys! I'm super sorry but things have been so busy on my end I hadn't had the time to do the chapter! Thanks to everybody who has reviewed so far, let's see if I can get this thing to the finish! I hope you enjoy! I don't own TFA or any of its characters!**

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"Hold on tight!" cried Optimus, banking the ship hard to the right to avoid a beam from Tartarus. The ship lurched, nearly throwing Bumblebee and Bulkhead from their stations.

"Holy Frag, Boss-bot!"

"It's better than being smashed to pieces, Bumblebee!" growled the Prime through gritted dentals, as he banked the ship down harshly as another beam lashed out.

"Keep going Prime!" urged Ratchet, "We need to get that ship!"

"Before or after it blows us up?" cried Bulkhead, clearly freaked out, and desperately clinging on.

Optimus gritted his dentals harder, "That's not helping, Bulkhead!"

"Sweet Primus!" gasped Prowl nearby, staring out the window.

Optimus spared a brief moment to glimpse outside, and his vital fluid lines ran cold.

Ship were already being blown out of the sky, fragments of those unfortunate showering over the smaller ship. Gripping the controls hard, the young Prime resolved to keep going.

The ship suddenly jolted, bringing the Prime back to attention.

Swerving hard, the Prime fought to remain in control, as his crew held on for dear life.

"Prime!"

Optimus ignored the call, instead flashing a glance to their escort, who had similarly being avoiding the beams.

Prime reached out to hail the other ship when a past shot past them and crashed through to other side of the other ship.

Of course the other ship rocked violently and was knocked out of its gravity, inadvertently crashing into the smaller vessel.

Optimus, and undoubtedly several of the others, cried out as the ship was sent flying uncontrollably at the impact.

"Ugh!" cried Optimus as he fought to gain control.

Though he got back a small amount o control, Optimus was able to see they were on a collision course with the oversized Decepticon warship.

"Prime!"

"Boss-bot?"

"Brace for impact!" roared Optimus, closing his optics and bracing himself for the inevitable crash...

* * *

The bridge of Tartarus rocked violently as several ships crashed to it, making a panel near the front explode violently in the faceplate of the officer manning it.

Megatron snarled angrily in his chair, "REPORT!"

"Four Autobot ships have crashed into the ship, My Lord!" called an elder Decepticon, "Two are quite firmly lodged. Am alerting nearby Decepticons to quarantine these areas and look for survivors...!"

"Order swift termination of any Autobot scum that survive," hissed Megatron frostily, "We don't need any causing problems onboard!"

"Yes, My Lord!"

"And lock-down the entire ship! We cannot have interference with the techno-organic power source!"

"Yes, My Lord!"

"Nightlife! Assist at once!"

"Yes, Lord Megatron!" bowed Nightlife, who quickly attached himself to a panel to assist the lock-down.

Megatron growled, looking out the window before sneering at the Steelhaven in the middle distance, "So this shall be the deciding battle, Ultra Magnus? Fine. Burn with your precious fleet..."

Nightlife, along with the other Decepticon, was initiating the lockdown as fast as he could , until a loud beep from his own panel caused the scientist to slow and turn.

Leaving the other panel and returning to his own, a briefly confused expression appeared on his faceplate as he quickly activate a programme, before his optics widened; furious one moment his expression quickly darkened into sinister glee.

"NIGHTLIFE! I ORDERED YOU TO-!"

"My Lord, you need to see this..."

* * *

A swift jolt was what woke Optimus, flinching and blinking his optics as everything fought to come into a clearer perspective.

From what he could see the bridge was wrecked, with sparks flashing from damaged consoles and ripped wires and the gloomy emergency lighting illuminating the place.

Pushing himself back up and off his seat, despite his aching shell's complaint, Optimus winced before jolting and looking around in panic. "Everyone?"

Spinning around, Prime could see the unmoving outlines of all the crew, slumped over.

Trying to quash the panic he felt, Optimus went over to the nearest crew member –Ratchet- and gently tried to rouse him. "Ratchet, can you hear me? Wake up!"

It took a moment of gentle jostling to rouse the medic, who groaned and cussed as he awoke, "What in slaggin' Primus hit me...?"

"You're alright, thank goodness..." smiled Optimus in relief, lightly patting the elder's shoulder.

"Ugh, whatever, how are the others...?"

At the mention, another groan sounded, drawing boths attention as Prowl sat up, nursing his faceplate, "Ugggghhhh...my processor..."

"Prowl!" chirped the Prime, which resulted in a large groan from the ninja-bot, "Sorry...!"

"Don't worry about it..." sighed the Ninja, waving him off.

"You need some help kid?" asked Ratchet, rising up from his seat with a loud creek in from protesting joints.

Prowl shook his head, clearly suffering for the attention, "Don't worry about me, where are Bulkhead and Bumblebee?"

Optimus and Ratchet turned, finding both younglings still unconscious. Prime crossed the floor faster than Ratchet, gently patting both on the side of the faceplate to rouse them. "Bumblebee! Bulkhead! Wake up!"

With more rousing, helped by Ratchet examing the two, both came around quickly and were leaning against the panels as they came round.

"...Boss-bot...?"

"Yes, Bumblebee?"

"..That was slaggin' awful driving..."

"I second that," motioned Bulkhead, still quite dazed.

Optimus smiled briefly, "Your both fine..."

"But for how long are we...?" asked Ratchet, drawing all attention to him, "I take it we are lodged in the 'Con ship?"

Optimus' optics narrowed instantly, before cautiously joining Prowl at his vantage point near the windows. The Ninja looked much better than earlier, looking deep in thought.

"What to report, Prowl?" asked Optimus quietly, noticing the Ninja-bot was very quiet.

"Two Decepticons are outside the ship," noted Prowl, indicating the window, "And are trying to get inside. But the doors are either melted shut or slagged beyond repair. The only way in or out is through the front windows..."

"How long do you think it will take them to realise that?" asked Ratchet urgently as he joined them.

Prowl was about to respond when a large clawed hand grapple crashed through the window and into the back wall, narrowly avoiding poor Bulkhead.

"I'd say now!" yelped Bumblebee weakly, jumping to his feet. Optimus launched into action immediately, deploying his axe, "Here we go! Formation Delta!"

Before anyone could argue, the Prime sliced through the grapple line, the owner of which roared in agony outside, before yanking the cable to drag him forward.

Prowl, similarly ready for action, quickly released his shurikens, which smashed through the window and promptly into the Decepticons outside; who roared in agony.

Bulkhead joined the assault, smashing his wrecking-balls through the remains of the window at both Decepticons, hitting them square in the stomach area and crashing into the nearby wall. One cussed furiously as he jumped back to his pedes, intending to get revenge and rushed forward.

Bumblebee, followed closely by Ratchet, leapt through the window, hit the ground before going back to back to deploy their respective powers to form an Electro-magnetic pulse. Both 'Cons lurched forward with blank optics before crumpling to the floor.

"Phew!" laughed Bumblebee weakly as Prowl jumped down next to them, "That showed them!"

"Well done everyone!" called Optimus as he climbed out the window and jumped down more heavily.

"Hey, wait for me!" Cried Bulkhead from the ship, before busting through and uncontrollably falling; the other members of the crew jumping back to avoid being crushed by the large mecha. "OW!"

"Easy, big guy! You nearly squished us!" said Bumblebee.

"Bulkhead, are you alright?" asked Prowl, helping Optimus and Ratchet heave the large mecha to his feet.

"Yeah I'm ok!" laughed Bulkhead sheepishly.

"I'll be the judge of that!" grunted Ratchet, as he examined him.

"Hey guys, I found a way out!" cried Bumblebee, making Optimus whip around and cross over, with Prowl by his side.

The scout was anxiously examing the panel, trying to make it open, "Boss-bot, I can't get it to open!"

The Prime briefly examined it, "It's under a lock-down; there is no way its gonna open without clearance!"

"Let me!" grunted Prowl, a connector emerging from his knuckles and plugging in. The Black Mecha went still, optics dim, as the others watched on in concern as Ratchet and Bulkhead joined them.

Suddenly Prowl went ridge, and cried out as he shocked, reeling backwards into Bulkhead as he leapt back.

"Prowl!"

"Are you alright?" asked Optimus, rushing to the Ninja.

Prowl shuddered, nodding, "S-sorry...it doesn't seem I could hack through...the lockdown in too strong and well protected with a firewall..."

"Great, does that mean we're stuck in here?" cried Bumblebee, looking quite angry all of a sudden.

"Looks that way," nodded Ratchet, looking annoyed as well.

"We can't stay here!" argued the Scout, fist waving, "We need to get in there and save Sari!"

"We know..." nodded an increasingly agitated Optimus.

"I could try smashing through it?" suggested Bulkhead to Optimus.

The Prime frowned, "You might have to, Bulkhead..." The Prime turned, "Anyone got any other suggestions?"

Silence reigned for a moment, before Optimus nodded and the others took a step back.

The large mecha nodded, going to step back and transform one of his claws into his wrecking-balls and line up a shot. He was about the fire, when a loud beep, followed by a violent spark echoed from the panel and the door swished open.

All the Autobots were shell-shocked, before Bumblebee snapped out if it first and peeked around the door. "Bumblebee, get back!" shouted Optimus in alarm.

"A 'Con could be there, you foolish glitch!"

"Little buddy!"

Prowl darted forward, yanking the scout back.

"Hey!"

"Don't you 'hey' me!" growled Prowl, lightly shaking the yellow bot, "That was dangerous!"

"He's right, Bumblebee," chimed in Optimus harshly, "That could have been a trap or several Decepticons could have been watching on the other side!"

"But Boss-bot, its clear!" protested Bumblebee, "Not a 'Con in sight!"

"What?" grunted Ratchet, watching as Optimus leaned around the door and into the eerily empty corridor.

"He's right...it is empty..."

"But it doesn't make sense, Prime..."

"Yeah!" agreed Bulkhead, "There's practically a war going on outside! They should be here!"

"I know...that's what worries me.." frowned Optimus, still checking the corridor.

"Perhaps, it was the one who presented us the data-pad..?" asked Prowl suddenly, making the Prime look at him, "Now he's helping us onboard...?"

"I don't know about this Prime..."

"I'm concerned too," admitted Optimus, "But we haven't got time to deal with this. We have to move..."

Suddenly the ship jarred, and rocked everyone, nearly knocking them over. "PRIMUS!"

"We need to move now and fast!" ordered Optimus, now rigid, "We need to find Sari, and destroy this ship before it destroys the fleet!"

"But Boss-bot, this ship is so big; how the frag are we gonna find her in time?"

Optimus grimaced, "We're going to have to split up to cover more of the ship..."

"That's a dangerous tactic, Prime," said Prowl, an edge in his voice.

"We have no choice," admitted a frustrated Prime, "Prowl and Bulkhead, you're with me. Ratchet and Bumblebee, you two have to head off in that direction alright?"

"If you say so Prime.." nodded Ratchet, clearly not happy with the turn of events. "I'm sorry, but we have to move. Now."

They all nodded and entered the hall, turning briefly to face each other.

"Be careful, Everyone. I want you all back in one piece," Optimus ordered, hands tightly clenched.

They all nodded, then turned and split in their different directions.

* * *

The sound of the fierce tapping of the control ceased for a moment as red optics widened in surprised.

Glit stared at his servos, at the panel before him before snapping back to the screen, the image of the door swishing open before the Autobots and then separating quickly flashed across the screen.

This quickly drew his attention and he began working fast to disable as much as he could.

He hadn't expected this work; Glit had managed to open the lock-downed doors surrounding the Autobots, helping to lead them to their captive friend.

Fast fingers worked across the panel and locks were becoming unlocked fast and flashing forgotten across the screen.

His success, coupled with the war outside the ship providing ample distraction, fuelled his work.

_I will set this right... _

However, unbeknownst to the Medic, camera swirled in behind him, zooming in on him as Nightlife grinned wickedly over a station panel in the bridge. He turned his face slightly to the left and spoke, "You see, My Lord Megatron?"

Megatron's large form towered over the panel menacingly as red optics narrowed dangerously in anger and a clawed hand went through a control panel.

"...Deal with him."

* * *

Meanwhile, on Steelhaven, the Elite Guard were doing their best to co-ordinate the attack and keep themselves from being blown out of space.

"Jazz! Give us an update!" roared Sentinel, who clung to Ultra Magnus' chair, the said commander propping himself there with his Hammer.

"Causalities in the fleet and onboard are rising, Boss-bot!" gasped the stressed Ninja-bot, as the data poured over his panel, "This ship shooting 'em down faster than some cats are banking! We've nearly lost half the fleet!"

"Frag!" snarled Sentinel, glaring out the window and holding on for dear life before launching himself at another console. Ultra Magnus, on the other hand, remained dignified before turning to the nearby twins, "Jetfire and Jetstorm, report!"

"Shields are down by 40%, Ultra Magnus-sir!" cried out Jetfire, "And dropping! Weapons are doing their best to hold! Also, Blurr is sending word that the engines are becoming stressed and are not ookie-for-dokie! We cannot hold for long!"

"But we has some good news, Ultra Magnus sir!" chimed in Jetstorm, "Enemy ship is experiencing severe damage due to hits getting through and shipping crashing through it!"

"Not cool, Jetstorm!" called Jazz unhappily.

"Sorry!"

Ultra Magnus gripped his hammer tight, staring out at the destruction and wreckage.

"Sir?" called Sentinel, drawing the Magnus' attention to him, "You should get out of here Sir, we can hold the fleet here..."

"No, Sentinel Prime," growled the Magnus, "I will remain here with my fleet. This battle is not lost yet."

"Yes sir," said Sentinel, his face clearly displaying his annoyance, before looking back at the screen.

Ultra Magnus also returned his attention to the screen, urgency in voice as he whispered, "Hurry Optimus Prime..."

* * *

"Autobots! Get them-GACK!"

The unfortunate 'Con did have time to finish his order as a pair of shurikens sailed through the air, lodging themselves in his throat and optic, disorientating him with the pain.

Prowl rushed forward, leaping to avoid the Decepticon's swinging arms and ending up behind him. Prowl quickly let forward, bringing his staff into action and taking his opponents legs out from under him and driving the staff into his faceplate; knocking him out in one hit.

A roar erupted behind the black ninja, who spun around to find a large decepticon advancing on him without giving him time to evade.

That is until a pair of large wrecking balls sailed out from behind him and sent the opponent flying and crashing into a wall, knocked clean out.

Prowl then watched in amusement as the balls slowly retracted back into place. "How undignified, Bulkhead."

The large mecha shrugged, waving a proper servo, "What do you expect me to do without momentum?"

Prowl sighed, then looked back down the corridor, just in time to see Optimus pulled a decepticon over with his grappling hook, before smashing the blunt end of his axe upwards, sending him sprawling and unmoving.

The Prime huffed gently before turning to his slightly unnerved crew members with a tight-lipped frown. "We seem to be getting close to something important. That's the 7th group of Decepticons we have come across."

"But, what exactly are we getting close to, Prime?" asked Prowl, lurching slightly as the ship rocked again and hastily putting his staff away and retrieving the shuriken from where they were lodged, "Sari? Or something else?"

"I don't know, Prowl; I really don't..." answered Optimus, looking agitated and uncertain, "I knew, I would have said something..."

"I don't know where we're goin'," interrupted Bulkhead, "But there's a lift at the end of the corridor, so let's start there!"

"It's a dead end otherwise," noted Prowl.

"We have no choice, let's go," said Optimus, heading down to the lift. With a brief tap to the control panel, he was relieved that their mysterious benefactor had unlocked the lift as it swished open.

The Autobots quickly entered the lift and began their ascent. Optimus twitched uncomfortably, as a bad feeling crept through his nerve circuits.

His feeling was proved correct when the lift lurched and the lights flickered.

"What the frag-?" gasped somebody but it was cut off by a horrifyingly familiar voice spoke over the speakers, "Welcome, Puny Autobots..."

"Megatron!" growled Optimus, deploying his axe, as the others readied their weapons behind him.

"You have done well to get this far, but you have come far enough..." continued the Decepticon leader in a low voice, the Autobots tense and edgy, "Now it's time to exterminate the problem myself..."

The lift jerked back into action, carrying on its ascent until it stopped and the lift doors swished open, revealing Megatron in his full glory.

Optimus exited the lift first, optics narrow as he and the decepticon leader stared each other down.

Megatron then grinned sadistically, "Welcome Optimus Prime...welcome to your end..."

* * *

"Phew!" puffed Bumblebee as he skidded to a halt at a locked door, "Nice shot, Doc-bot! Those 'Con would have got us if you hadn't zapped them!"

Ratchet looked perturbed as he scanned the Decepticons who he had used the EMP on, now piled on the floor, before scanning the corridor. "Don't thank me yet kid, we still haven't found Sari..."

"I know," nodded the scout with a frown, "But we can't give up hope: We will find her!"

"I hope your right, kid..." mumbled the medic, before he crossed over to the door-lock panel, briefly examining it and pressing a button. The door slid open and Ratchet had to grab Bumblebee before he raced past.

"Hey!"

"Don't hey me! This is a Decepticon ship remember! You may just charge into one or five and what will you do then?"

"Zap 'em good!" protested Bumblebee, puffing himself up slightly, with sparking stingers.

Ratchet groaned, peeking around the door before edging in, "You got to learn pick your fights, kid..."

Bumblebee huffed, slightly annoyed, before following the medic in suit. The corridor appeared empty and nothing suspicious, except swinging cables that had been disturbed as the ship rocked from the war going on outside.

A said quake suddenly rocked the ship, knocking Bumblebee into Ratchet with a yelp and a curse respectively and knocking them into an ungraceful pile. "Frag!" "Ow!"

"Frag it! What is going on out there?"

"Ship are crashing into Tartarus?"

"Being shot down by the 'Cons or self-sacrificing suicide missions?" groused the Medic annoyed, attempting to shove the scout off.

"Hey, whose there?" called an uncertain voice, which made Ratchet and Bumblebee scramble to untangle themselves and arm quickly.

"Identify yourself!" roared Ratchet, "What are you?"

"Hey I asked first!"Objected a younger, very uncertain voice from down the corridor.

Bumblebee squinted in the gloomy light, before nudging to Ratchet that a glow of a weapon could be seen just around a corner. Ratchet nodded, and both Autobots slowly edged up the corridor.

"You still there?" demanded another voice, sounding just as young and panicked as the other. Ratchet and Bumblebee paused just at the edge of the corner of the corridor turning, bracing themselves before leaping around the corner and coming face to face with their opponents.

Both sides jumped and locked into a stalemate as they stared. Ratchet eased off first, "So your Autobots..."

The two mechas, just about older then Bumblebee, shivered, before relaxing at the sight of the Autobot symbol on Ratchet and Bumblebee.

"Thank Primus," gasped the green and white mecha, relaxing his bo-staff, "We thought we were goners and gonna get got by the 'Cons!"

"How the frag did you get here?" asked Bumblebee, who dismissed his stingers.

"Our ship got shot down by the big ship," chimed in the red and blue mecha, "Me and Swift-Stake here are the only survivors. Our Prime and medic were offlined in the crash..."

"That's not right, Hot step!" Argued Swift-Stake, "Another member of our crew is missing!"

"Another crew member?" asked Ratchet, optic arching.

"He means Tunnel-Crawler..." nodded Hot Step, "We couldn't find his remains or any signs of him on the ship."

"No offence, but he's probably been got by the 'Cons..." stated Bumblebee, slightly uneasy.

Swift-Stake huffed, angrily and Hot Step frowned dejectedly, "You're probably right..."

Swift-Stake suddenly stared at Ratchet and Bumblebee, "What in Pit are you guys doing here anyway?"

"We are on a mission to save a friend of ours,; she is being held in a medbay like room or maybe a lab," said Ratchet.

"We're trying to find her! But the rooms we've tried are empty..." said Bumblebee, clearly not happy.

"Perhaps we can help?" suggested Hot Step.

"Yeah! Its safety in numbers right? And we may see things you guys miss!"said Swift-Stake, cheerily.

Ratchet frowned, "I'm not sure we should involve you kids in this..."

"But we can't leave them here, Doc-bot!" protested Bumblebee, "The 'Con's will get them! Besides, it couldn't hurt to have them help us out..."

The senior medic groaned, realising the scout was right, "Fine. You can come. But watch your fenders out there!"

"Yessir!" chorused the youngling pair, with a salute. Ratchet waved it off, before getting right back to business, "We are wasting time here, we need to move!"

Bumblebee nodded, "Where do we go from here?"

"The corridor we came down here doesn't lead anywhere, except where our ship crashed," stated Hot Step, with Swift-Stake nodding behind him.

"We were hoping the way you guys came was better," sighed the green and white mecha.

"Then we have no choice but to take the middle path," indicated Ratchet, who stared down the darkened corridor.

"We have to try!" nodded Bumblebee, who equipped his stingers to flash, providing light as he edged down the corridor with the others following him.

It wasn't long before they had to stop short as the group bumped into a wall. "Frag!" growled Bumblebee, stinger flashing his annoyance.

"A dead-end?" asked Swift-Stake.

"Fraggit, this isn't good..." mumbled Ratchet, "We may have to double back..."

"But why would the 'Cons have an unused corridor in a ship?" asked Hot Step curiously, drawing the others attention to him, "That is very poor ship design..."

"You got a point, Hot- AH!" Swift-Stake cried out.

"Swift-Stake!"

The others spun round in alarm, Bumblebee's stingers whirled the light around as he moved and tried to find the other mecha.

"Kid, are you alright?" called Ratchet, trying to see him.

Soon, the light of Bumblebee's stingers settled on the youngling, who was in a heap on the floor as another Bot, one of green and purple colouration, pinned him.

"What the- who the frag are you?" demanded Bumblebee, watching as Swift-Stake struggled to shove the other off.

"Tunnel-Crawler?" gasped Hot Step, making Bumblebee stare for a moment.

"The missing member of your crew...?" asked Ratchet, looking uncertain.

"Crawler! Where the frag have you been?" demanded Swift-Strike, shaking the other Autobot harshly.

The other bot didn't say a word, but shook his head furiously.

"Hey, what's wrong with you?" asked Bumblebee, "Can't you talk or something?"

Tunnel-Crawler stared at the scout for a moment, the shadows from the light making his face-plate hard to read before tilting his neck plating up.

"Ouch!" groaned Bumblebee with a wince. The other mecha's throat and vocal processer looked badly damaged, but it was difficult to see the extent.

"Frag that looks bad," said Ratchet, quickly going to the youngling's side, "Here let me take a look..."

However, Tunnel-Crawler, jumped back, shaking his head and indicating down the corridor vigorously.

"Hey why won't you let the medic help you, Crawler?" asked Swift-Stake, clearly worried.

"Hey, let Ratchet help you!" said Bumblebee, suddenly looking frustrated as the other mecha continued to shake his head.

"...Have you found something?" asked Hot Step, curious.

Tunnel-Crawler jumped, nodding excitedly before taking off down the corridor.

"Hey wait-!" "There's a wall there, you glitchy kid!" roared Ratchet as the team scrambled after him.

Chasing him down the corridor, they suddenly realised the wall had seemingly disappeared.

"Hey Docbot-!" "Waitasecond-!"

Suddenly, light flared further down the corridor as a door swished open; revealing Tunnel-Crawler fully.

The others skidded to a slow halt and stared at him for a moment. "What the frag-?" asked Swift-Stake, clearly unnerved.

"How the frag did you do that, kid?" demanded Ratchet, who looked intent on answers.

Tunnel-Crawler didn't respond, merely pointing into the room. Ratchet and Bumblebee gave each other nervous looks before slowly coming closer and peeking into the room.

The sight inside almost made Bumblebee's spark stop.

Trapped and coffined within several large looking machine and many large wires within a circular sphere was...

"SARI!"

* * *

**Katfreak: Done! Phew, this chapter was a long time coming but I hope it was worth the wait! Thanks guys! Please review! I'll see you next time! :D**


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